Legend of the Lost Princess
by Frozen789
Summary: <html><head></head>Dark forces are once again threatening the land of Hyrule. Can Mara, later Zelda, a peasant girl from the Faron Woods, come to grips with her true identity in time and save the kingdom of Hyrule along with the Hero, or it is too late? (Used to be titled Change)</html>
1. Prologue-The Girl in the Blizzard

Please review and let me know what you think, and even ideas in where this story could go. I already have an idea, but any suggestions would be welcome.

**Zelda; the Legend of the Lost Princess**

Prologue The Girl in the Blizzard

I pulled the the dark raincloak tigher around my body and pulled the hood over my face, shielding it from the blinding sheets of snow that whip around me, making visiblity almost nonexistant. My teeth chattered uncontrollably and I couldn't get them to stop. I have to constantly wipe my cheeks of the nonstop tears that keep forming and flowing into my shoulder length blonde hair, created by the grief which tears at my insides with every step I take.

I craned my head around for a brief moment, and behind a grove of white pine trees, I can still see pitch-black smoke rising high into the sky, starkly against the white background. You could even see a flame occasionally flicker above the trees. _They still haven't gone out yet, _I thought. My heart broke once again and fresh tears flowed down my cheeks again from my crystal blue eyes, freezing against my face.

That is what is all that remains of my village, my hometown. It had happened mere hours ago; men dressed in black and blue overcoats and uniforms had came out of the blizzard and burned my village to the ground. They showed no mercy to the inhabitants either; I only escaped because my mom sacrificed herself, jumping in front of me when one of those evil demons shot an arrow at me. Thanks to this blizzard, I was able to escape.

Westward is my only hope; Castle Town is that direction from the where I lived. It's big enough that you run into it if you just go west from my village. But the luck of the Goddesses don't seem to shine on me in this massive storm. The blizzard seems to get worse as I plow on, snow piling up nearly up to my ankles. My legs are getting increasingally wobbly with each step. Yet somehow, something inside of me kept pushing, causing me to keep on walking despite my aching body.

After what seemed like hours to me, I can't find anything close to what I'm looking for. Nothing but white as far as my eyes can see, and oftentimes they can't, blinded by the blizzard. My legs are burning, not wanting to see another step. Hopelessness rapidly fills my chest, mixing with already-present grief that is digging out my insides.

But, when I'm about to collapse, I see a lane of leaf-less trees, clearly leading along a path. Obscured behind it, is a large _manor house_. Barely visible, and little more than a dark blue, I have no choice. I pushed myself towards it, along the line of trees towards the manor house, pratically willing myself to move foreward.

Several times my knees locked and I toppled foreward, landing hard in the snow each time. I'm sapped more of my little strength each time it happens, until my legs finally give out feet away from my destination. With every spark of energy that is left within my body, I dragged myself the final few feet to the manor house front steps. I raised my hand to knock on the door, but then I felt my body finally give out and I saw the white sparkle of the snow rapidly rushing towards my face as blackness closes in on the edge of my vision.


	2. Chapter 1-Becoming Zelda

I don't own the Legend of Zelda

Sorry if you don't find a new chapter my readers. I was doing some work on my story and screwed up, having to reload this chapter back up again.

Chapter 1- Becoming Zelda

_My eyes flashed opened. To my great surprise, instead of lying in a snow bank, I'm standing in a room with walls and columns made of the whitest stone I've ever seen. My eyes roamed the room, from the ceiling and down to the floor; its pure white, with no engraved markings in the stone. As my eyes skirt the floor, they travel to my dress, except it's not my torn navy-blue traveling dress I'd been wearing._

_It's gone; instead I'm wearing a midnight blue dressing gown, which starts at my neckline, with sleeves that cover my arms all the way down to my hands. The room is_ empty,_ except for a single middle-aged woman with shoulder-length golden blonde hair, exactly the same shade as mine and wearing a similar white gown. She turned and looked at me, and gave me a smile that reminded me of my mother. She walked towards me, her footsteps softly resounding off the empty room. She came within a few feet of me, stopped, and took both my hands in hers. After staring awkwardly at each other for a few moments, I finally managed to utter out, "Who are you?" _

_"Mara Zelda Nohansen Daphnes," she said in the sweetest voice I've ever heard. "The time has come for to take up the mantle of your ancestors and assume your true identity."_

_"How do you know my name? And what do you mean by my true identity?" I asked, thoroughly confused. _

_My ancestors had lived in the village of Mordon ever since the beginning of Hyrule, as my parents had always told me. It was at this point that I noticed that she had blue eyes (exactly the same shade of mine) that seemed to put me at ease._

_"You will find out with time," she said. "My name is Hylia, or more properly Zelda, the one who descended from the Sky and the first Queen of Hyrule." _

_Suddenly another woman, this one looking older and more mature than Hylia appeared behind her. She was as pretty, and had on a dark blue dress, with a unique symbol on the front of it. As my eyes took in the newcomer, they alighted to the symbol on the hem of her dress. It had three half circles with three smaller complete circles within them, arranged in a unique pattern. My brain processed it for a moment before it came up with a match. But before I could speak, she introduced herself._

_"And my name is Nayru, dear Princess, the Goddess of Wisdom, one of the three Golden Goddesses who created this land."_

_I started to bow to her, breaking the grip Zelda had on my hands, but Nayru moved forward and grabbed me, interrupting me mid-bow. I rose back to my full height._

_"No need to bow to me Zelda," Nayru said, addressing me by my middle name_

_Not having received any answers yet, I swallowed my questions and let her continue._

_"I treat all good beings as equals. Evil is once again threatening the land of Hyrule. Zelda, inheritor of the divine wisdom I entrusted to your ancestors, the time has come for you to save Hyrule like your ancestors of old."_

_"Who were they?" I asked. "Wait, where are you going?"_  
><em>Both of them were starting to fade before my very eyes. <em>

_"Wait!"_

_"Zelda, remember these words we have spoken to you..." echoed from out of the darkness. _

_But they had disappeared and I felt myself sliding into darkness..._

Soft voices slowly began to work their way into my brain. My mind was very groggy, so it took awhile for them to come into focus enough so I could hear them.

"Do you think she's going to make it?" a girlish voice said.

"I don't know sweetheart, who knows how long she'd been there. Hopefully the Goddesses will have mercy and spare her life," said another.

I lay there with my eyes closed, listening. My body ached all over, especially my head; it was literally screaming at me. My body didn't want to move, wanting to lay there forever. But I stirred and moved a bit. It immediately elicited excited reactions from the voices.

"Mom! She's waking up!" I heard someone scream.

"Yes dear, there's no need to scream."

I would've jumped in complete surprise if my body hadn't been so weak. I forced my eyelids open and a face gradually came into view. I rubbed them to help them clear up. The face was that of a young woman, with brown hair, brown eyes, and wearing a red velvet dress with two 'L's' and an 'R' embroidered the on her blouse.

"Good morning," she said in a cheerful tone.

I didn't respond. I took in the room; it was like I was in a log cabin. The room alone was the size of the tiny cabin I had shared with four siblings! The room was almost completely bare of all furnishings except a bookcase to my left full of books, a nightstand to the right of bed, and the bed itself. The brown-haired girl was sitting on the foot of the bed, while another, middle-aged woman, who I took was her mother, was busy mixing together some ingredients in a kettle. She seemed to have finished, because she turned and came to where her daughter was sitting on the edge of my bed with a metal trey that had a blue kettle and two white glass cups on it.

Now that she sat close to me, I could see that Karane resembled her mother in every aspect except for her hair. Karane's mother had dark black hair compared to her daughter. She too was wearing a red dress embroidered with two 'L's' and a 'R'.

"Ooh," I moaned, gripping my head.

The older woman came over to my bed

"Well, glad to see you finally woke up my dear," she said.

I still don't reply.

"We thought we'd had lost you but you started coming around early this morning."

She poured a steaming brown liquid into one of the cups and held to my lips for me to drink. I thought it best to accept whatever it was without complaint. When it touched my tongue, I gagged briefly, but forced it down. Warmth spread throughout my body, starting at my head and trickling down my body to my fingers and my toes. Energy flowed back into my exhausted limbs, but I still felt very weak.

"Where am I?"

"Lon Lon Ranch," the girl said. "You've been out for nearly two days."

I leaned back into the pillows, my brain making sense of the situation. I'd landed on the doorstep of the famous Lon Lon Ranch. The girl wasted no time in introducing herself.

"My name is Karane Lon Lon," the girl my age said, for some reason jittery with excitement. "And this is my mother Orielle."

Without further ado, she burst into a multitude of questions.

"Where are you from? What is your name? And how did you get here?"

"Karane," Orielle said, interrupting her. "Let her be for now. She still has way to go to make a full recovery. She can answer most of those later."

I felt a wave of gratitude towards Orielle; I'm in no mood to discuss what has happened recently.

"But at least darling," Orielle said to me, sitting down next to her daughter. "What is your name?"

"Mara Daphnes," I said weakly, deciding against revealing my full name.

That's a pretty name," Karane said. "But doesn't Mara mean "bitter" or "grieving" or something like that?"

My eyes flashed venom at her; Mara was my mom's favorite name. Grief is once again gathering in my chest and threatening to break out; I fight it with all my might so as to avoid breaking down in front of my hosts.

"Karane, that's very rude," her mother reprimanded her.

Karane fell silent at her mother's rebuke. Orielle poured more of the brown liquid into another cup and gave it to me, after making sure I'd be able to hold it in my weakened condition.

"It may not taste good, but this is Stamina Potion mixed in with hot chocolate," Orielle informed me. "It'll help you regain your strength back, especailly after being outside in that blizzard."

I drank a bit from the cup, tolerating the unsweetened liquid.

"Thanks," I muttered.

My thoughts soon drifted to the dream I just had. It had seemed so real, so vivid, unlike any other dream I'd ever had before. _True identity? Heir of the divine wisdom bestowed to your ancestors? The first Zelda, Nayru, appearing to me? Was it just a bizarre dream, or something more than that? _

"Keep an eye on her for me for now Karane," Orielle said, jerking me out of my thoughts. "Yell if you need anything."

Orielle collected the empty teapot and the cups, put then on the tray then left the room.

"Sorry for all the questions," Karane said. "You should thank the Goddesses that you are still alive. We found you collapsed in the snow outside our door, we thought you were dead."

"Well, thanks for taking me in," I said. "I was actually hoping to reach Castle Town to find an inn or something like that."

I could feel exhaustion creeping in on my irises and was anxious to get this conversation over so I could some more zzzz's.

"So, Mara, after we get you fully recovered here, we are planning to take you to Castle Town tomorrow," Karane said.

"Castle Town?" I repeated, a little bit confused.

"Yeah, we can send out a post card to your family..."

The dam I'd erected to contain my grief over loss of my entire family broke down under and I soon lost all composure. Tears flowed seamlessly and freely down my cheeks into my blonde hair as I dissolved in a wave of sobs. Karane, pulled me into an embrace on the bed to comfort me.

"It's okay Mara," Karane said, holding me. "Soon we'll get you back to your family, you'll be back before you know it."

"I...have...no...family," I choked out in the middle of all my sobs. "They're...g..gg...oo...oo..nne."

With that came a fresh round of tears and sobs. Karane continued to hold onto to me for some time, whispering words of encouragement until I heard the door open.

"Karane, what happened?" Orielle said.

"I don't know," Karane explained. "I just a few words and she broke down."

"Here, take this downstairs."

I heard footsteps walk to me and felt a new pair of arms embrace me.

"It's okay dear," Orielle cooed. "Please, you can trust us. Let us know what happened. Let it all out dear, it's the first step on the way to recovery."

I don't know what happened within me, but before I knew it, everything was spilling out of my mouth. The entire story, how the men arrived, slew everyone in sight, burned the homes, my mother's sacrifice for me, and my resultant winter trek. It seemed to go on for hours, but somehow, the grief that was tearing me to shreds seemed to lessen. At this point, exhaustion finally won and I felt myself drift into sleep in Orielle's arms.

My eyes fluttered open again sometime later. I found that Orielle was gone, and I was laying back on my bed. Karane was sitting on a rocking chair in the corner near the bookcase, her nose buried in one of the books.

"Karane?" I said.

"Oh," she said in surprise, putting down her book on the bookshelf. "Good morning."

She stood and walked over to the bed.

"How long did I sleep?" I asked, rubbing my eyes.

"Another twelve hours," Karane said. "It's around eight o clock in the morning. Mother has breakfast ready, if you feel strong enough to get up. We can bring up a tray again if you'd like."

"Well, I'll try getting up," I said. "I can't stay laying in a bed all day.

I threw the blanket aside and slowly sat up in bed. I slowly slid to the edge of the bed, and Karane grabbed my left arm and helped me to my feet. My legs wobbled and burned a bit, but they held my weight.

"Hmmm, you need a new set of clothes Mara," Karane said, looking down at my dress.

I glanced down at my navy-blue dress, and saw that it is completely filthy, covered hard water spots and caked with a lot of dirt. I grimaced slightly when I realized what state my blonde hair might be in.

"I'll give you some of mine for now," Karane said, jumping up and leaving the room.

I simply watched her go, a bit stunned at her kindness. She emerged with a simple orange shirt with the Lon Lon Ranch symbol on it along with an orange skirt. She tossed them at me and I caught them in my arms.

"The bathroom with the tub is right behind you," Karane said, motioning behind me to a behind me that I hadn't noticed before. "The tub is already filled with hot water for me this morning but you can use it instead."

"No Karane, I can wait, you don't have to do this for me," I protested.

"You're family," she replied.

"What?" I said, hardly believing what I have just heard.

Karane simply smiled at me.

"Bathe, or my mother will be after my blood. She's a clean freak, and has put me in charge of getting

With that she turned on her heel, and marched out of the room, closing the door behind her. With that, I went into the bathroom. It was quite spacious, with a metal tub and an ornamental sink. It was quite nice stripping off my dirty clothes and settling into the hot water. As I scrubbed my body with soap, a rich layer of dirt I'd not realized that was on my skin peeled with the water off into the metal tub, turning the water a dark disgusting brown color.

I pulled the orange shirt over my head and put the skirt on. It made me look like an advertisement board for Lon Lon Ranch, but it's better than the gritty outfit I just got out of. I went back out of the bathroom and into the main bedroom, opened the door leading to the rest of the house and found myself in a large wooden halfway, decorated with dozens of portraits of what looked like former owners of the ranch. I followed it until it reach a flight of stairs, then I followed them down into the kitchen, where I gasped in surprise.

It was enormous and that's an understatement. It was at least large enough to hold around twenty people in the food preparation area, and with a large enough capacity to serve at least twice that number. It had four sinks, dozens of cupboards containing everything from food to silverware, and herbs of every variety hung from the ceiling. An enormous wooden table, big enough to sit fifty easily, was in the middle of the kitchen. In the middle sat Orielle, Karane, and what I take is her father. They've left an empty chair, next to Karane for me. I slowly walked up to them and took my place next to Karane.

A few moments of awkward silence followed before Karane's father spoke. He was wearing the traditional men's worker clothing, with the Lon Lon Ranch logo emblazoned on his pants and his shirt. Karane had gotten her brown eyes from him, but he had black hair instead of Karane's brown.

"Welcome Mara," he said to me. "I haven't introduced myself yet. I'm Talon Lon Lon, Karane's father. As you probably well know, we own and run the famous Lon Lon Ranch, who's products are used all over Hyrule."

"Honey," said Orielle. "We have some things to discuss with you before we get started dear."

"I can imagine that would be the case," I said, taking my seat at the table.

_Who wouldn't? It's not every day a ragged, exhausted, half-dead teenaged girl shows up on your doorstep in the middle of a blizzard, _I reasoned.

"Where are you from and how did you get here in such a driving blizzard?" Orielle asked. "We need to get you back to your remaining family as soon as possible, they're probably worried sick about you dear."

I looked down at the table. It was a subject I still wasn't keen on discussing. Although I'd gotten out much of the grief last night, the subject was still rather raw for me. But they deserved to know if they could give me anymore help.

"Okay," I said, indifferent to my own emotions. "I'll answer to the best of my ability. You already know much of what happened. I'll fill in the gaps for you. It's best if I tell the entire story."

I steeled myself; I just needed to keep it together for just five minutes.

"My full name is Mara Zelda Nohansen Daphnes, and I come from a village called Mordon, that is deep in the Faron Woods," I began. "It was a small farming community. Everyone knew everyone all my family was there. Aunts, Uncles, grandparents, we all lived within walking distance pretty much."

I wiped a few tears away which were already streaking down my face. The entire Lon Lon family had their eyes glued to me as I began my heart wrenching story.

"Then, just last night, men came wearing black uniforms to our village. They appeared like ghosts out of the blizzard, carrying torches and weapons of every description. They..they..."

And so I went on, reliving the terrible scenes from that night. Before my eyes I can see unarmed men, women and children fleeing their homes in the middle of a blizzard, armed heartless masked men chasing them with torches and weapons, burning the village to the ground. Then I come to by far the worse memory of all.

_"Mara, we've got to go," my mother yelled at me._

_I ran to the closet in the tiny-one room cabin that we shared on the outskirts of Mordon. I grabbed two black winter cloaks out of the closest and threw one of them to my mother._

_"We're going to need this to make it to Castle Town," I said._

_My mother accepted the cloak without any protest. We put them on, and bundled each other up the best we could in our warmest traveling dresses, which I have to say aren't . _

_"We must go westward," my mother instructed me. "If we get split up, go westward until you hit Castle Town. We'll find each other there."_

_I had many objections to this plan; Castle Town was huge. It would be nearly impossible to find one another in such a huge city, but it was the only choice in a blizzard like this. _

_"But what about our aunts, uncles, and our grandparents?" I asked._

_She looked at me with a hard but knowing look. Tears started to well up in my eyes as I thought of their possible fates. Why did this have to befall us? Without a word, my mother wrenched open the back door, grasped my hand and we headed out westward into the storm._

_I allowed her to guide me as we ran, looking desperately for a sign of any of my friends or family members. Occasionally a dark figure holding a torch would seem to appear out of the whiteness and run by us, but mercifully, the Goddesses spared our lives. I chanced a look back and saw a fire bloom out of the blizzard, though I could barely see it. I'm guessing that it's our cabin, burned to the ground like a pile of firewood. The snow crunched beneath our feet and the wind whipped about us as we hurried deeper into the woods. We'd been going for some time when my mother came to a halt._

_"Mom, why have we stopped, are we going the right way?" I asked, dreading the answer._

_"Mara go," she said._

_"What?" I said in shock._

_"Mara, go now," she said firmly._

_The horrible realization of what my mom was saying came crashing in on me. _

_"What? No!" I replied, embracing her as tightly as I could._

_I'd already lost so many, I wasn't going to lose another. _

_"Mara go," she said._

_It was a command, not a question. But my feet remained immobile; they didn't want to go anywhere. Out of the corner of my eye I saw men with torches on horses closing in on us. That's when I understood why but I couldn't bear the thought._

_"Zelda, this is where our journey together ends," she said, using my middle name._

_"No, we can escape together, let's go. We need to try. I can't leave you," I responded, tears streaking down my cheeks._

_My mother finally managed to separate the two of us. She gripped my hands tightly, staring into my eyes for what seemed like an eternity._

_She reached out one of her hands and tenderly stroked the sides of my face, wiping away the tears and pushing my blonde hair out of my eyes. Out of my entire family, I'm the only one who inherited my mother's blue eyes and golden blonde hair. She had always doted on me because of that._

_"Dearest Zelda," she said. "You are more important than I am. We'll meet again, whether it be in this life or another, it does not matter my child."_

_She gave me another embrace. Tears were streaming thick and fast down my face, as I determined never to let go. _

_"I'll always love you, Zelda."_

_"Zelda?" I repeated._

_It was unusual for my mother to use my middle name twice in a row._

_"Zelda, my princess of destiny," she said, linking my middle name and my nickname together. "Named after one of the strongest woman ever to ascend the throne of Hyrule, channel her strength, and go to fulfill your destiny." _

_But again my feet remained immobile. I heard several horses neigh right next to us. My mom, twirled in our embrace and threw me off a snow bank and I cartwheeled down, into a thicket of trees.. Panic engulfed me, my mother was in grave danger. I struggled to get to my feet when the a familiar piercing scream shattered the air, one that penetrated to my very core and reverberated throughout my entire body. Pain erupted from the very depth of my soul and into my chest as the terrible truth hit me like a bolt of lightning. I started shaking uncontrollably, not from cold or the blizzard, but from the grief that was penetrating inside me._

_As tears and violent sobs began to cloud my vision, I saw torches coming nearer. _

_**"Go Zelda, fulfill your destiny" **__came in my mom's voice out of nowhere, seemingly on the wind. _

_I turned and ran, into the woods, into the blizzard, never looking back, with pain tearing through my entire body in every footstep._

"Oh Mara," Karane wailed, running and hugging me, nearly causing the chair I was sitting on to topple over.

Despite my efforts, I had once again become a nervous wreck. Karane's parents, both of whom had tears in their eyes looked at each other and nodded.

"Mara, seeing as you are now an orphan, how would you like to stay with us?" Talon asked.

I couldn't believe what he was hearing. The tears stopped flowing from my eyes as a hint of joy began to grow in my chest despite the grief.

"What?" is all I could get out over Karane's shoulder.

"Stay with us. I know we'll never replace the family that you've lost, but would you like to live with as if you are one of us?"

A smile was creeping across Karane's face as she processed what her father was proposing. Orielle just smiled at me.

"What do you think Mara?" she said, still holding me in an embrace.

It takes my brain a few moments to fully grasp what they are saying.

"A..re...are...you..serious?" I choked out.

Orielle nodded her head.

My brain

"Th-thank you," was all I could get out.

After a few more moment in which I managed to regain my composure, Orielle brought out four large bowls of apple porridge for the four of us. Just before everyone dug in, I willed myself to speak.  
>"Karane, Orielle, Talon," I said.<p>

They all looked at me with inquisitive looks.

"My name isn't Mara anymore," I said. "my name is Zelda, which is the name my mother gave to me."

To me it was fitting; that was the last name my mother had called me before she departed this life.

(Out of Zelda's POV)

Meanwhile, a letter was on its way to Hyrule Castle in Castle Town, but was held up at the Post Office due to the blizzard. Inside it, in a well-practiced hand it read.

_Dear Matinus_

_I will be dead when you read this, so don't bother looking for me. I write to you on my deathbed about a horrible yet terrifying truth I found in the midst of my many travels in the Gerudo Valley; the dark forces we thought were long extinguished are back and more terrible than ever before. You must act to stop them before it is too late. _

_The key to saving Hyrule was given to me by a woman of the Shiekah tribe now I pass it onto you. After the murder of the Royal Family, they vanished into the shadows. You will never find them unless your intent is to save Hyrule from destruction._

_The key is this; you must give up the throne to the remaining descendents of the ancient Hyrulean Royal Family your grandfather ejected. They have the wisdom of the Goddess Nayru and will be able to see and stop the destruction that awaits our land. If you don't do this, the blood of every man, woman, and child that walks our cities, towns, and villages will be on your hands._

_Your former Chancellor and servant Maliden_

_P.S. I've included an enchanted envelope. If you obey my council, write so and send it in the mail. It will reach the Shiekah tribe, but I leave a warning. If you try to deceive them, you will never find them and will destroy any army you send against them. Please heed my words. I pray that the Goddess Nayru may guide you in your decisions._


	3. Chapter 2-Castle Town

**Castle Town is based on the one that appears in Ocarina of Time. It may seemed a bit rushed towards the end, but I thought that's how one might perceive it in light of the circumstances that are happening.**

**Please review**

**I do not own the Legend of Zelda or any of its chacacters**

Chapter 2 Castle Town

After my massive meltdown, the day passed by rather quickly for me. I spent most of the time inside, learning more about my adoptive family, observing their routines, and exploring the rest of the mansion. When the sun finally slipped below the horizon, I slipped under the covers in my bed in a white nightgown, anxious to get more sleep and recover further. As I lifted my hand to the nightstand to put out the candle, my door opened. Karane came in a blue nightgown, took one last look at the hallway, before closing the door. That puzzled me; why did she need to do that? She quietly walked over to me and sat down on the edge of my bed.

"Zelda," she said. "Can you tell me a bit more about yourself or would you'd rather wait for a while?"

_What should I tell her if anything? _Thoughts such as these raced through my mind as I pondered her question or whether or not to answer. She just stared a me in silence, while I struggled internally. The last thing I wanted to do was to lose it twice in one day. In the midst of the war of reasons, a conversation I'd had many years ago with my mother burst into my mind.

_"Mara," my mother said, pulling me into an embrace._

_"I don't want to talk about it," I replied._

_"Honey, dear if you don't talk about it, the grief inside of you will grow and consume you. Now dear tell me what happened."_

That made up my mind for me.

"Okay Karane," I said. "You already know about the tragedies that brought me here. I'll tell you more. My full name is Mara Zelda Nohansen Daphnus, Nohansen after my grandfather, Mara because my mom liked the name, and Zelda after the princesses that have ruled and saved Hyrule in the past. I never knew my father, but my mother's name was Serene Harkinian Daphnus."

I dabbed at my eyes dry up the tears that were already leaking out.

"She was an archer in the Royal Rangers for a time before she met dad and had me. She used to sing and tell me the stories and legends of Hyrule every night before I went to bed."

My eyes started swimming with tears again. Karane, now with a look of regret on her face, crawled close to me on the bed and put her arms around me in a tight embrace.

"Thank you Karane," I sputtered out. "Thanks for everything."

"You're welcome Zelda, you're welcome," Karane said back to me.

We embraced very tightly. Even though I'd only known the Lon Lons for little more than two days, they are starting to feel like family to me.

Karane let go of me after the tears finally stopped coming down my cheeks. She climbed off my bed, and started to walk out the door, pausing briefly before she left.

"Zelda, tomorrow we're going into Castle Town to get you your own clothes, you can't go on borrowing from me forever."

"What? Karane no, you can't do this," I protested.

They've done enough for me. Karane threw me a mischievous smile.

"You don't have a choice in the matter."

She left, closing the door behind her. I felt a wave of sleepiness over taking me and I slumped into the pillows, which were very enticing and soon found myself drifting off into the world of sleep.

_I suddenly became aware that I was standing at the window in my room, staring out at the stars. My roomin the Lon Lon manor faces north, at Castle Town and the river, or moat that flows under the bridge that goes into the city itself. No clouds covered the moon, or any part of the sky for that matter tonight. My eyes canvassed the skies, observing the stars I used to watch for hours on end as a little girl, lying out near my small home in the grass with my friends on our backs watching the stars. My mind drifted back to those days. Playing without a care in the world with my friends and siblings, shooting Deku Nuts with slingshots at passing butterflies, and my all-time favorite thing to do, archery practice with my mom. She'd doted on me from my birth, when my father disappeared from our lives forever, and taught me everything she knew, including how to..._

_ Suddenly a streak of gold shot up out of the middle of Castle Town. It rose out of the middle of the city, near Hyrule Castle, and headed south, zigzagging to and fro over the rooftops. I squinted at it, trying to get a better view of what it was, even rubbed my eyes, trying to get the sight out of my line of sight, believing that it was an illusion. Eventually, it came close enough I could finally make out what it actually was._

_ A triangle, a single golden triangle was on a course heading south. I'd swore I'd seen something like that before, so I racked my brain for what it could be, but it just couldn't come up with anything. Yet I felt strangely nostalgic when I saw it, as if it was an old friend or objects I'd hadn't seen in many years. The triangle crossed the city walls, and dropped to about the level of my window, then made a beeline for the ranch._

_ Now my nerves kicked in, sending fear and panic shooting up my spine. I began to back away slowly from the window, my feet reluctantly obeying the command to move. It's crazy: this isn't supposed to happen at all! __It came closer and closer and my mind began to think of running from my room and going to get Talon or Orielle. I bolted for the door. My hands were shaking uncontrollably as I fumbled with the doorknob, opening the door. Just as I was about to bolt out of the room when a voice, sweet and delicate, came out of nowhere, whether in my mind or on the wind I can't tell._

_"Zelda, princess of destiny, don't refuse that which is yours to bear."_

_ The voice came out of nowhere, causing a soothing calm to come over me. I turned and look behind me to see the golden triangle now floating in my room, at about my eye level. It began to rotate and I stared mesmerized at it. It rotated faster and faster until it became a beam of light which shot straight for me. Despite soothing calm I felt, I tried to get out through the door but it struck before I could get one foot outside the door._

_ It lowered in altitude and plunged straight into my stomach region, rapidly disappearing into my body. I let go of the doorknob, and gripped my stomach as pain reverberated from my stomach region. I struggled get to my feet and walk to my bed, but felt my energy rapidly leaving me. Darkness pressed upon my consciousness like a fog, clouding my view. I felt my knees lock and I fell to the floor, the last thing I saw was the carpet rushing up to greet me._

"Mara, Mara, wake up," came from somewhere in the darkness.

My eyes fluttered open. I was right next to my bed, on the floor. I rubbed my eyes and they lighted upon Karane who was kneeling next to me in a green nightdress, a look of concern on her face.

"Are you alright? You were tossing and turning when I got up here. Was it a bad dream?" Karane asked.

My mind went over the dream, or what might have actually have happened last night. _Was it a dream, or wasn't it a dream? Or did it actually happen? __And that voice, it matched the woman in the dream that I had when I passed out in the snow? Could they be related?_

"Mar-, Zelda, are you alright?" Karane said, pulling me back to reality.

_Should I tell the Lon Lons? Would they even believe me? _

"It was just a bad dream," I lied, not liking myself for doing it.

"Oh, okay," she said. "Would you like to talk about it?"

"No," I replied."Better just to let them go and fade away."

"Okay," she said, a look of queerness on her face. "Breakfast is ready."

She got up, and skipped out of the room the room. I got up off the floor and went over to the wardrobe that I hadn't noticed before. It's a bit battered, with elaborate patterns carved into the dark brown deku wood, culminating at the top with a three triangle pattern carved above the twin wooden doors, which each have a mirror inside them. I flung the doors open and found to my surprise that were where at least a dozen dresses hanging in it. I rifled and flipped through them carefully, feeling the clothe; I'd never handled fabric this soft or luxurious before. My eyes alighted on a white dress with oversized sleeves and an embroidered golden neckline. I took it off the hanger and examined it.

I instantly liked it: it reminded me of the dress the girl who descended from the sky, the first Zelda, I'd seen in pictures back in the books my mom used to read me in Mordon. I pulled off my blue nightgown and put the white dress on. It fitted perfectly and was very easy to move around in. I chose to let my mid-back length hair flow down unimpeded, except for two strands in my bangs, which I wrapped in blue beads. I twirled a couple of times in the mirrors; I looked almost exactly like her (which I'd seen in illustrations), which was my attention. Done, I opened the door and went down the stairs into the cavernous kitchen. Karane, Orielle, and Talon are all already there, with bowls of porridge in front of them. I skipped from the foot of the stairs to the table, taking a seat next to Karane.

"Hi Orielle, Talon," I said.

"Zelda," Karane said, taking in my appearance. "You look absolutely gorgeous."

"Thank you," I replied, trying not to blush.

A bowl of brown porridge greeted me as I sat down at the table. Talon had already finished his breakfast and was a large paper. It said the Hyrule Times in bold across the top.

"What's that?"

"Zelda," Talon said surprised."You honestly don't know what a newspaper is?"

"No. Talon, I'm from deep in the Faron Woods," I reminded him. "We never saw anything like that."

They can't expect for me to adjust overnight.

"We'll dear," he said, folding up the newspaper, getting up from his seat and giving Orielle a quick peck on the cheek. "I'm going to go and get the horses ready."

"Okay," Orielle said.

"Horses, sleigh?" I said, hoping to catch Orielle's or Karane's attention.

"That's right," Orielle said. "We're just going over to Castle Town, to get you some clothes of your own..."

"No, no that's really not a problem Mrs. Lon Lon," I protested.

"Call me Orielle," she corrected me.

It was true: I'd counted ten different outfits in that wardrobe, surely that's enough. After all, for the first sixteen years of my life, I'd gotten along with only three outfits; one to wear and two in the wash.

"You need your own wardrobe and clothes dear," Orielle said.

"No, please you don't have to do this for me."

"We are, now sit down and eat before your breakfast gets cold."

I was a little taken aback by the sudden end to the conversation. My eyes shifted to Karane, her mouth full of porridge. She shrugged her shoulders and gave me a "best not to argue" look. After shoveling a few spoonfuls of porridge into my mouth, I chanced another question.

"So what's the city like?"

"You've never been in the city before?" Orielle asked in surprise.

"Nope."

"Lots of people live there, tons of houses, many markets. And there are so many shops, you'll love it Mar-oh, Zelda," Karane said, squealing with excitement.

"But don't you think you should stay home dear?," Orielle said, cutting her daughter off. "We can just go get them for you."

I've had enough of the bed. Not to mention I'm feeling just fine, although my energy level is still not what is was before the blizzard.  
>"No, I'm fine."<p>

"You sure dear?"

"Yes Orielle."

Excitement and nervousness are both starting to build within me; I've never been inside a city before. Consequently, I was more than helpful when Orielle asked me to help clean up breakfast. When all the dishes were clean, we dressed into snow cloaks (Orielle insisted I wear at least three and drink three Hot Chocolate/Stamina Potions). Pronounced fit and ready to go by Orielle, all of us trudged our way out to the waiting sleigh and horses.

The sleigh looks a little run down, but still in good condition. Make of deku wood it has two 'benches'; one for the driver and one for the passengers. Talon was there, dressed in a large black trench coat and boots, with another boy there dressed in green that I didn't recognize. But what amazed me was the horses. Two chestnut Clydesdales, with powerful muscles and glossy coats, hooked to the sleigh. They were the finest horses I'd ever seen, making the ones I used to plow the fields back in Mordon look like total pansies. Each had a strip of white that traveled down their faces and ended at the nose. Karane noticed me staring at the horses.

"Epona and Edona," she said. "They are rarities. They were twins, born to our finest mare and stallion. They are the pride of the ranch."

I finally stopped staring and followed Karane. Karane filed into the backseat first. I stopped to let Orielle go in first so she could sit by her daughter.

"No, you first Mar-Zelda," she said.

"No, you fir..."

"Zelda, just get in the sleigh please," Karane interrupted.

I did as she said, feeling like a cornered Cuccou with how close Karane and Orielle sat next to me. I'm guessing they're doing it because they're still afraid that I'll keel over or something.

"Everyone ready, by the Goddesses, let's go," Talon said.

I cringed when he said that; the goddesses were always treated with great respect back in my village and usage of their names like that wasn't allowed. A_pparently things are much more different out here than I thought. _Talon slapped reigns and off we went, the skids sliding through the foot-deep snow with ease. I spent most of the ride staring at the weird shapes on the ground that the blizzard had thrown up. It looked like fall in Faron Woods, where all the leaves would pile up here and there, and we kids would jumps into them, gather them back up again and repeat the process all over again.

The city's massive walls came closer and closer and I was in awe of their spectacular height. No one could take this city easily. Several buildings towered above the walls, tallest of which was a massive castle, it's many turrets rising spectacularly to the sky.

"What castle is that?" I asked Karane.

"Hyrule Castle, where King Matinus II reigns," Karane said, a bitter note to her voice.

This puzzled me; why would Karane be bitter about the monarchy or the rulers of the country. I made a mental note to ask later as we were just arriving at a very large stable situated just outside the city wall. They were immense, with enough stalls for at least 200 horses. Around forty sleighs of different varieties scattered around the stables. About a hundred horses or where in the stalls, neighing to each other. Boys and even a few girls in overcoats scrambled around the horses, feeding and watering them and cleaning out their stalls.

"Okay," he said. "Link help me unhook the horses and get them into their stalls."

"Link?" I said in surprise.

Sure enough, a boy about half a foot taller than me came from behind the sleigh. I don't know how I didn't see him on the ride here. He had sandy-blonde hair, misty blue eyes, and somehow, I seem to recognize him from somewhere, although I've never seen him before. He doesn't say anything but came up to the front. Talon unhitched the horses and lead them, with Link's help into the two stalls, which had hay, oats, and unfrozen water already there. It was fascinating to watch how they did it. With the horses safely in the stalls, Talon gave Link a red rupee and he shuffled across the drawbridge and into the city at a quick pace.  
>"Who's Link Talon? I asked.<p>

"Link, is a ranch hand from Castle Town," he said. "He's been staying at the ranch for the last week, helping us milk the cows. We're giving him a lift back to his home here in the city."

Suddenly Karane grabbed my hand.

"Okay Zelda, we're off to Malon's Womanwear first," she proudly announced, pulling me across the drawbridge with her.

"Karane, can't we go slower?" I protested, a bit put off by her rush.

She pulled me across the drawbridge and into the city, with Talon and Orielle right behind us. I'm amazed by the city. Houses bigger than ones I've ever seen lined the white path (or 'streets' as Karane calls it) that wound its way directly down the center of the city. Many other streets cut off from the one Karane is pulling me down and disappear into different parts of the city. During the fall, summer, or spring, I'm sure the city would look much more colorful, when everything is covered in a blanket of white.

They passed slowly by as I let Karane drag me deeper into the city, myself too absorbed in taking in my surroundings. Eventually, we came to a wide open square, lined with stalls and a vast crowd of people, milling around. Merchants were hawking their wares to the crowd, customers were doling out rupees and arguing with the merchants. Everything from weapons to teapots were being exchanged and traded right before my very eyes. Karane dragged me to a stone building on the edge of the square. It had a sign above it that said "Malon's Womanwear" in gold Hylian lettering. As Karane pulled me inside I gasped; I'd never seen so many clothes in my life. Clothes of every kind were on racks from the door which we just came in to the back wall. Every kind, from dresses to men's work clothes in all different colors.

A lady greeted us inside the store. She was dressed in a beautiful red dress that had the store's name sewn across the blouse.

"May I help you Karane?" she said.

No wonder why Karane dragged me here.

"Hi Malon," Karane said with a grin. "This is my friend here and she needs a completely new warderobe."

"Hmm," she said, pulling out a measuring tape. "What's your name dear?"

"Zelda," I said, not wanting to give out much more information.

My mom has always warned me to be wary of strangers.

"Zelda, not a common name anymore," Malon commented, measuring my waistline and height.

"What do you mean?" I asked curiously.

"Not many people around here have Zelda as their name anymore," Malon commented. "It has kind of fallen out of use lately, as names come and go."

"Okay."

The door opens and Orielle and Talon come in, winded.

"Come with me dear," Malon said, grabbing me by the arm and steering my forcefully through the store towards the woman's section.

For the next four hours, two of which in Malon's shop, Karane, Orielle and Talon dragged me from clothes store to clothes store. I soon lost track of how many outfits I was trying on. But as the numbers and prices accumulated, I began to worry about how much this was going to cost.

"How much is this going to cost?" I dared asked Orielle at one shop, my hands full with three different dresses.

"Don't worry about that dear," she said.

_Why does she keep calling me 'dear'?_

She pulled two red rupees out of a bag and hands them over to the clerk without even so much as batting an eye. _A red rupee was all that my family ever had!_

"Orielle, you sure about this?" I asked again.

"Of course dear."

When we finally finished with our last store, we emerged into a marketplace in the heart of the city. It wasn't much different from the one Malon's shop was, except it was much larger and a street lead directly out of it to Hyrule Castle.

BANG!

A massive explosion erupted from the other end of the marketplace. From a destroyed house, poured out red little creatures screeching and wielding clubs. People started fleeing and panicking and the throng of peaceful shoppers became a mob, trying to get away from the chaos. In response to the chaos unfolding in the marketplace, guards raced out from the castle and slammed into the oncoming horde of monsters. The sounds of battle soon added to the mix of terrified and fleeing people. The rest of the Lon Lon family stood there as though transfixed. We urgently needed to get out of here. The whole situation was made even messier by the fact there was snow on the ground. People were sliding all over the place in the rush to get out of the square.

"Talon, let's get out of here," I said, punching him in the back.

It shook him out of his stupor. He shook the other two women.

"Everyone, let's go," he said.

They followed me the way we had come earlier. Holding hands as tightly as we could, we flung ourselves into the panicking crowd, trying to stay together. More guards flew by us, smashing into the oncoming horde behind us. Talon now took the lead, making our way slowly, through the crowd to a street that lead off eastward from the square.

"Where does this lead to?"

Talon lead the way. Gradually we worked our way through the alleyway, which emptied into the south market of the city. Suddenly we found ourselves in a mass of humanity, people fleeing the approach of the Bokoblin army.

"Karane," I yelled.

"Mara," she yelled back.

But there was little we could do. And my worse nightmare had come true; I'm now a young woman who from the backwoods now lost in a city which I have never seen before. Karane, Talon, and Orielle vanished from my sight, swallowed by the crowd. I had little choice but to follow the crowd to the north, away from the south gate and Lon Lon Ranch. Eventually, the crowd fans out, enabling me to make my escape, but not until I've reached an area somewhere in the north of the city, far away from the Bokoblins.

I end up in a wide open marketplace where I took refuge in a small alleyway off to the side. I breathed in deep breaths and exhaled, trying to contain the panic building within me. My situation couldn't be worse; even if I headed directly south towards Lon Lon Ranch and Hyrule Field, there was a good chance I'd get lost for days within such a large city or worse, possibly mugged by bandits. As I looked around, my eyes lighted on an abandoned stall with a undamaged _bow and a quiver full of arrows. _

Looking around for the merchants, couldn't see them anywhere in the deserted, snow-covered square. Reasoning that a life-threatening situation needs drastic decisions, I grabbed both of them and strapped the quiver of bows to my back while holding my bow to my chest. Feeling much safer and protected, I began to head south, a bow on the string, read for anything that would come my way.

WHAM!

Something slammed into my legs, causing me to slam into the snow, landing on my stomach. I immediately noticed a huge shadow appear over me. Fear trickled down my spine and into my toes as turned rolled onto my back. A red beast, with an enormous belly, a big wooden shield in one hand, and a nasty-looking spear in the other. It raised the spear and brought it down on top of me. My legs were like red potion; they refused to move. I dropped the bow and closed my eyes, awaiting the impact.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh!" I screamed.


	4. Chapter 3-Secrets

I do not own the Legend of Zelda

Chapter 3-Secrets & Confidantes

I tried to command my legs to move, but they refused to budge an inch. I just laid on my back, my eyes closing involuntarily, ready for the end.

"Aaahhhh," I screamed.

A massive light erupted right next to me, flooding my closed eyes with light. A squeal of pain emanated from the general direction of the moblin, followed by the sound of something crashing to the ground. Forcing my eyes open, I saw the moblin on it's back, having been knocked over by some invisible force.

"Magic," I muttered to myself in horror and realization, panic lodging in my chest. "No, not again, please not now, not now."

The moblin started to push on the snow-covered ground, trying to get back up, using its massive wooden shield and its spear as leverage to get off the frozen ground. My legs finally heeded me, and I began to run away from the moblin, towards the wrecked shops and houses lining the square I was in. I hadn't gone far when something swiped out my feet from under me. I crashed into the snow, skidding to a stop on my front. I rolled onto my back to face the moblin, just in time to catch a dark figure come literally out of nowhere. He plowed into the moblin, causing it to crash to the ground again. The moblin finally managed to get to it's feet on him and stabbed at the boy with his spear, which he blocked with a round metal/wooden in his left hand. In the boy's other hand was a sword.

"Look out!" I yelled involuntarily.

The moblin had jabbed at him with it's ugly spear. The boy did a full back flip to dodge it. I finally saw his face and identified him; he was the farm hand that Talon had called Link who'd hitched a ride with us into the city. He briefly locked eyes with me, then turned and began to deal with the moblin. For a few minutes, I just watched the two go at it, jabbing and swiping at each other with their weapons, and blocking each other's thrusts with their shields. The moblin still had the advantage and was slowly backing Link up. With panic beginning to surge within my chest again, I extracted the bow which miraculously hadn't broken, and brought it in front of me. With trembling hands, I struggled to put the arrow on the string.

"Aaahh," I heard Link yell out.

The moblin had laid Link out with a shield bash and was now standing over the helpless boy. It raised its ugly spear to finish my would-be savior off, as I fumbled to put the arrow into the string. When the arrow finally locked to the string, I raised the bow and arrow and aimed the shaft of the arrow at the mobin's massive right eye. Praying and hoping against hope, I released the drawstring. It flew straight and true; embedding in the moblin's eye socket. It squealed in pain, dropped its spear and massive wooden shield. Link watched the scene in shock, but quickly recovered.

"You're finished," Link said to the moblin, getting back up and stabbing his sword into the beast's belly.

The moblin, still squirming, let out a last cry then toppled over backwards. It turned black, then vanished in a purple puff of smoke.

"Thanks Link," I said.

"Don't mention it," he said, putting his blade into its sheath, and extending hand to me.

I took his hand, and he gave an enormous pull that helped me get to my feet. I then brushed the snow off my blue snow cloak, shouldered the quiver of arrows over my back and picked up the bow in my right hand. I began to walk through the snow to the south, towards Lon Lon Ranch, when the sound of crunching of snow behind me informed me that Link was following me.

"Link, what are you doing?" I asked, still walking southward, now out of the square, turning on my heel to face him.

"What do you think I'm doing?" he asked back.  
>"I don't know what you're doing."<p>

"Making sure you get home safely."

I froze and rolled my eyes. _Didn't I just a save **his** life? _

"Where are you going?" he asked, ignoring my question.

"To Lon Lon Ranch," I said.

Suddenly, he broke into a run, raced by me, and clanged swords with a Bokoblin behind me which I hadn't noticed.

"So, what's your name? I haven't seen you around the ranch before until recently. Are you a farm hand or a newly hired maid?"

"My name is Zelda," I replied in a testy voice, that I wasn't keen on purchasing . "No, I'm not a farm hand or a maid, but a member of the Lon Lon family."

It was technically true; Talon and Orielle had made it clear that I was wasn't going anywhere anytime soon. I had no desire to discuss my past with anyone else other than the Lon Lons.

"Oh," he said, seeming to ponder this for moment. "Where are you from then originally?"

_Won't he get the cue and back off this subject? Boys are dense sometimes. _

"Faron Woods, my family was slain so the Lon Lons took me in."

I pray that I would reach the Lon Lon family in time to tip them off so they wouldn't show too many more details about me to this stranger.

"Sorry, about that," he apologized.

A familiar screeching sound set off warning bells in my head. I grabbed the crook of Link's arm and dragged him into the remains of a nearby burned-out building.

"Zelda, what are you..."

"Shhhh, quiet," I commanded.

"No.."

The grunts and groans of Bokoblins were getting louder and louder. I armed my bow while Link drew his sword. Sure enough, around twenty Bokoblins walked right in front of our hiding place and conveniently stationed themselves right in front of us. Our enmity vanquished by the quest for survival, our eyes searched the buildings around us, searching for any escape route. As my eyes cast over the abandoned and burned out buildings, I noticed many potential hiding places. A dangerious and conniving plan formed in my mind.

"Stay here," I told Link.

I started climbing a nearby ladder to the roof of a white-brick house that was mostly undamaged.

"What are you doing?" he asked in a whisper.

"Disposing of the rabble," I said.

Reaching the roof, I squatted behind a chimney, placed a bow in the string, and peered down the shaft of the arrow at the nearest red monster, which was around a 30 yards away from us. I loosed the string and the arrow slithered away from the bow. It struck the Bokoblin in the back. It keeled over and vanished in a puff of purple smoke.

"Nice shot," Link said from the street, grasping my brilliant idea.

"Stay there," I repeated.

He obeyed. I moved from hiding place to hiding place for the next twenty minutes or so, crouching behind chimneys, in alleyways, and behind fallen piles of masonry. One by one, arrows sliced into the Bokoblins seemingly from nowhere, knocking them out one by one. The survivors began to panic, filling the snow-covered square and the surrounding streets with their high-pitched cries and running aimlessly in circles as they became more agitated as more of their comrades keeled over under the assault from nowhere.

The last Bokoblin thought, proved to be tricky though. This one had completely lost its sanity, running around the square and yelling at the top of its lungs. I moved out from behind a chimney to get a better shot, when it finally saw me. It drew a bow, placed an arrow and fired at me before I could arm myself. Time seemed to slow as I watched the arrow come nearer and nearer. I reacted out of pure instinct; I twirled and a pyramid of blue light enveloped me. The arrow impact the blue light; just hanging in the air in front of my eyes. It then turned around, and headed right back from whence it came. The arrow nailed its sender in the face, and the last Bokoblin keeled over.

My mind was racing as it contemplated what just had happened. To make matters worse, a voice spoke from behind me.

"How'd you do that?"

I shrieked and whirled around.

"Do what?" I asked, trying to hide the panic in my voice. _Had he saw that?_

"Shoot down all the red monsters?"

The panic vanished as quickly as it had arisen.

"Lots of practice and a mother who was in the Royal Guard," I anwsered, stringing the bow over my shoulder.

I turned and began to walk to the south again, with Link right behind me. With his help, I let him guide me through a series of alleyways and shortcuts that circumvented the market and streets where the Bokoblins had appeared. After about an hour, the southern walls of the city came into view. My feet slipped several times on the icy wooden bridge that lead out of the city. As we emerged from the city, loud voices were emanating from our immediate left where the stables where. A massive crowd was milling around them; woman, children, and men were all trying to get their horses and sleighs together, eager to leave as soon as possible. And in a scene that tore at my heart, mothers, fathers, and children were also wandering around, calling for lost family members. Jus Karane walked right in front of me, twisting her hands in front of her, a distressed and worried look on her face, and barely visible tear streaks on her face. _Did they really miss me that much?_ I took the quiver of arrows off my back, and tossed it and the bow into the river that ran under the wooden bridge. I wouldn't need them anymore.

"Karane!," I yelled.

She froze in her tracks. Very slowly, she turned and looked at me. She stared at me for a few moments as though she couldn't believe her eyes.

"ZELDA!" she squealed with delight, running towards me despite the snow.

She covered the distance between the two of us in almost no time flat and swept me into a bone-crushing hug.

"Zelda, Where have you been? You aren't hurt are you? I was so worried," she screamed.

"I'm alright Karane..."

I felt my eyes widen when I heard another shriek from behind Karane. It was Orielle, and she was also running towards me, arms outstretched. She joined Karane's bone-crushing hug with one of her own, doubling the pressure.

"We were so worried Zelda," she screeched.

"Umm, Ka..r..ane, Or..ie..lle," I uttered.

"Yes?," Orielle and Karane said together.

"Ca..ca..can I br...bre..athe?"

"Oh, sorry," both said together, letting me go.

Air creeped into my oxygen-deprived lungs for the first time in what seemed like an eternity.

"You are okay?" Orielle said, walking around me and examining. "No injuries or anything like that?"

"No, I'm just really tired."

Orielle noticed Link standing behind me.

"Link, did you help her?" she asked.

"Yes, but she didn't want it at first," he said in a disgusted voice.

Orielle gave him a bone-crushing hug as well. He flushed a bright red as Karane also gave him one as well.

"Thanks for bringing our Zelda back to us," Orielle said.

"Oh, it was nothing," Link said.

They let go of him and came back to me. Karane grabbed my arm and clung on, as if afraid I'd vanish if she let go.

"We're going back to the ranch dear," she said, "Talon already has the sled ready. He was going to have us go back to the ranch while he conducted a search for you."

"Which we wouldn't have done anyways," Karane chimed in.

"Oh," I said, not surprised.

The four of us crunched through the snow, Karane still attached to my arm, around the milling crowd and to our sled. Talon was in the driver's seat on the sleigh, calming the horses. His face literally lit up when he saw me.

"Zelda, glad to see you're alright. Karnae and Orielle were beside themselves with you missing."

"Sorry about that," I said.

"What about my dresses and new outfits?" I asked, suddenly remembering them.

Karane smiled, and padded a bulging brown satchel hanging on her back.

"Half of them are on order and the rest I folded up and put in here. So, no harm done. But I wonder what those things were? They were like little monsters, savage beasts..."

"Bokoblins," I said, taking them all by surprise.

"Boko-what?" Orielle asked, tongue-tied.

"Nasty little creatures that value their undergarments, wield clubs, bows and arrows, and have little to no brains."

They all looked at me with surprised looks on their faces.

"They were all over the place in the Faron Woods."

"Oh," all three of them said at once.

I chanced a glance over my shoulder and saw Link, still right behind me, staring at me. We locked eyes and he quickly looked away.

"Thanks Link for all your help," I said with a smile, and giving him a wave.

He started to turn a bright red, especailly when I began giggling in response to him blushing.

"What is it Zelda?" Karane inquired.

Still giggling, I pointed towards Link. Now he really began to turn red. Karane couldn't hold it in; she joined me in fits of the giggles.

"Okay giggle sisters," Talon said. "Time to go."

Karane and I climbed into the passenger bench on the sliegh.

"Huh," Talon yelled, slapping the reigns.

The sleigh began to move forward as sleepiness began to tug at my eyes. My head drooped onto Orielle's shoulder and I dozed off.

"Zelda, Zelda, wake up," someone said as if from a far distance away.  
>My eyes slowly creeped open, and the image of Karane shaking me came into view. We're at the manor house, at the stables near the manor house itself.<p>

"You sure did sleep well didn't you?" Karane said, as Orielle, herself, and me got off the bench and tramped through the snow to the manor house.

Orielle opened the door and we all stepped inside. Talon stayed outside to take care of Epona and Edona. My legs feel like jelly as I wobbled inside, taking off the three layers of cloaks Orielle had put on me. How I was able to move in these, I have no idea whatsoever. With three girls (or woman) all taking off clothes and boots, it wasn't long before the closet was full of our cloaks and boots.

"So, Zelda, what happened to you?" Karane asked me after all of us had shed our winter wear and headed back into the kitchen, which was right next to the door where I had come earlier two days earlier.

I told her everything,

"Wow Zelda, it was lucky Link found you," Karane said.

"Woopeee," I said, reflecting on it.

"You should take him out sometime."

"No."

That ended that.

"Orielle," I said. "What are we having tonight?"

"All you can eat dear," Orielle responded. "We'll just pull out a bunch of our produce, then you just make what you want."

"That sounds nice," I said, thoroughly excited.

Karane, Orielle and me raced into the kitchen to pull out the banquet.

(Out of Zelda's POV)

The woman walked through the snow covered streets, now deserted except for the occasional castle guard. She was wearing blue clothes that covered her entire body with the Sheikah eye symbol on her blouse. She mused over what she had saw today. The boy fighting the moblin, the girl taking down Bokoblins with a bow. It was easier than she supposed. Much easier. She stopped at a normal-looking house constructed entirely of white stone with a unique eye symbol carved laboriously atop the doorway. After a few moments, she opened the door. It was a brown-painted single room house, bare of all furnishings except for several cots that lined the walls. Two people, a dark-haired boy and a blonde-haired girl girl, not much older than Link and Zelda, stood there, dressed similarly as the woman was, except the girl had blonde hair, cut short,

"Good evening Serene, Sheik," she said as she walked in.

"Good evening Impa," the two responded.

"It's time to set the plan in motion ladies," Impa said.

Shiek flushed a bright red at Impa's words. Serene suppressed started to giggle, but a look from Impa silenced her instantly.

"Sheik, it's time to let the farm hand know of his destiny," Impa informed him.

"Yes, Impa," Shiek said, turned on his heel, and heading towards the door.

"Serene," Impa said.

Serene snapped to attention, as Sheik left the house.

"You're assigned the blonde girl. Keep your distance from her though. The tragedy she went through may have shattered her emotional state, which might complicate matters. When she's stable and ready, that's when you tell her of her destiny."

"Yes Impa," Serene said with a grimace.

Impa left behind them, gazing towards the north, where Hyrule Castle stood.

"Matinus, your reign is coming to an end," she cooed, walking out into the night.

...

The next few days were happy times, trying on my new dresses, playing outside making snowman and having snowball fights with Karane and some of the other farm hands. I integrated so thoroughly into the Lon Lon family that Orielle even had a nickname for me; Zella. Soon, the weekend approached, and I soon discovered that Karane had big plans for me in a very wrong way.

"ZELDA WAKE-UP!"

I jolted awake, sitting up rapidly in my bed. I nearly punched Karane in the face before I realized it was here. I sighed and looked out the window. The early morning rays of the sun were peaking in through the window, signaling that dawn had arrived.

"Karane, it's the crack of dawn," I muttered, rubbing my eyes.

"Doesn't matter, there's so much that we're doing today," she squealed in excitement.

"Ohhhh," I muttered lying back down on the comfortable bed, wishing for more shut eye.

Karane's face darkened when I didn't get up.

"Come on get up," she said in a more stern voice, pulling the blankets off the bed.

"Okay, I'm up, I'm up," I stuttered, getting to my feet and rubbing my eyes.

I stood up, stretched and started to follow Karane when I felt a tingling sensation start working it's away up my body. It began in my feet, ascended my legs, and up into my spine. I stopped walking and dread built up in my chest. _No, not now, why now, no, no, please no, why now?_ A sharp jab of pain erupted into my chest and stomach, causing me to topple over to the floor on my right side. I clutched my stomach region pain spiked spread across my entire body. Karane had gone outside the room when she finally noticed I'd stopped following her. She raced back into the room.

"Zelda!" Karane said, running to me, kneeling beside me as I lay, sprawled out on the floor on my side, clutching my stomach.

I tried to wave her off. No one was getting hurt on my watch.

"Karane leave," I said.

"What? No! What's going on Zelda?!"

"Go, I'll explain later, I don't want you to get hurt."

"Hurt by what?"

I couldn't hold it in anymore. The intense pain forced my eyelids closed as I lost all control. A flash of blue light illuminated the darkness around me.

"Aaaaaahhhhhh," I yelled in intense pain.

I felt enormous amounts of energy ripping from my body, tearing at the flesh as they spiraled outward into the room. The shockwave left my body heaving, exhausted, aching, and shaking uncontrollably from head to toe.

"Zelda what happened?" Karane's voice said.

I couldn't answer; another round of energy coalsced in my stomach/chest region.

"Karane, I..."

Another wave escaped from my body, causing another wave of pain to shoot through me.

"Aaaahhhh!" I yelled in pain.

"Zelda! Focus, focus on me, okay. You'll get through this," Karane's voice said right next to me. "Focus on your voice."

_Foc...foc..uss... on..her...no..she has to leave! _My breathing became ever more labored and I could tell the worse of it was coming.

"Karane, go, get out of here, please," I pleaded.

"NO!" Karane yelled back at me. "I'm going to help you get through whatever is happening to you."

"No you don't...under...understand...

Suddenly the pain intensified and another blast erupted from me, forcing my eyes shut again. Wave upon wave of white, blue, and red magic escaped from me in rapid succession, sending shockwaves of pain through my body. My mind couldn't form cohesive thoughts anymore, too consumed with the pain. Sometime in the middle of my outburst took me into an embrace in the middle of my outbursts, unaffected by the magical shockwaves. I couldn't tell who or what it was, as the pain consumed and tormented me. After what seemed like an eternity, the shockwaves finally ceased. I felt extremely light-headed as blackness pressed itself over my eyes.

My eyes weakly forced themselves open sometime later to find a smiling Karane sitting next to me on the bed. The sun's weak rays were now fading rapidly across the horizon. I'd been out an entire day. I had a massive headache and clamped my hands to my head immediately.

"My head," I groaned.

Karane held out a cup full of Orielle's hot/chocolate stamina fruit mix.

"Drink up, or mom will be after my blood."

I leaned up against the pillow and drank the bitter mixture, feeling strength flowing back into my body. The door opened, and Orielle came in at that moment. For some reason, I felt ashamed; this was the second time I'd passed out on them in a week.

"Well, you're finally awake dear," she said in a sweet voice that put me at ease.

She came over and sat down next to Karane. I knew that they wanted answers.

"How are you feeling?"

"Better, " I said weakly.

"Zelda, what happened?" Karane asked.

I locked eyes with Orielle. She nodded at me.

"Well, what you just saw was one of my outbursts," I said.

"Outbursts?" Orielle repeated.

"Outbursts," I said. "I've had them happen since I was four. It's magic, it somehow builds in my body, then it comes out violently like that. Sometimes I can control it, sometimes not, if I detect them early enough. It might have been the excitement of the day and the blizzard...I don't know. It doesn't happen often though; this is actually my first one in almost a year."

Orielle and Karane looked at each other with strange looks upon their faces. Was it disbelief or wonder?

"Continue," Orielle said.

"I can't control it. I don't know why it does that or even what it is, or how I got it. The only thing I can do with it is twirl and it forms some sort of shield around me. The shaman of my village called it 'Nayru's Love', whatever that means."

Karane and Orielle eyes' where now as wide as grapefruits.

"Please, you'll know all of my many secrets in due time," I pleaded, desperate for them to understand.

To my surprise, Karane and Orielle both gave me more bone-crushing hugs. Luckily these were shorter than the last ones they gave me

"No problem Zelda," Orielle said after about a minute, getting off the bed and letting me go. "I need to go and tell Talon what is happening. Karane, watch Zelda for me please."

"Yes mother."

Orielle left the room, closing the door behind her. I had many questions for her as well.

"Karane, how did you survive my outbursts unscathed?"

Karane looked at the wall for a few moments, as if trying to decide how much to tell me.

"Zelda, we're part Sheikah."

It took a few minutes for the full impact of that statement to sink in.

"You're part what?!"

"Sheikah. Guardians of the R...of the bloodline of the Goddess Hylia for generations."

"But they're extinct."

"No we're not. Then my grandmother never existed Zelda. My grandmother was a high-ranking member of the tribe before she met and fell in love with my grandfather. It seems most of her abilities trickled down the generations to me. I seem to have immunity to some types of magic, notably those associated with Hylia's bloodline."

I simply sat in shock. Karane took both of my hands in hers.

"Zelda, you must never tell anyone our family secret. Promise me you will never tell anyone our secret, Mara."

I was still in shock, but I nodded.

"I will, but, please also keep my powers a secret as well," I pleaded. "I just want to be..to..be..normal in everyone's eyes for once. It wasn't that way back in Mordon. I was treated different from everybody else, although they still let me play with them. Isolated in my room for weeks after each outburst, everyone knew. Yet, I still loved them and my time there were still some of the greatest time of my life. I know, it's confusing, I get it. Please just do as I ask."

Karane looked down for a moment then back up at me.

"Zelda, I can teach you how to control your powers."*

My jaw dropped to the floor.

"You're kidding?"

"No I'm not. My grandmother taught me the ways of the Sheikah Z..."

I didn't give her time to finish her sentence. I hugged her.

"Oh..thanks Kar..."

'CRASH'

Me and Karane were both sprawled out on the floor, my momentum having carried both of us off the bed. My forgotten headache doubled in size

"Ooohhhh," I moaned in pain. grasping my head again.

Karane got up, and helped me back into my bed.

"Zelda, consider yourself a Lon Lon now," she said as I slithered under the covers. "You get to sleep. We'll discuss this tomorrow.:

"Good night sister," she said to me.

"Good night sis," I responded.

She left my side and exhuished the lantern on her way out. I smiled before sleep finally claimed me; I was home at last.

**Notes**

***I base this off of that when Princess Zelda is brought up by Sheikah (the one I'm referring to is the Princess Zelda in Ocarina of Time) she has exceptional abilities, both physical and magical. She'd have to start somewhere to learn to control her abilities, which gave me the idea for the outburst scene and having Karane teach Zelda how to control her abilities. **

**4,500 words wow. Review please if you want the story to get even better. **


	5. Chapter 4-The Scroll

I do not own the Legend of Zelda

Please Review. They make the story even better.

Chapter 4-The Scroll

Later that day...

(Outside Zelda's POV)

Link watched the Lon Lon's sleigh drive off, heart heavy as the sleigh went towards Lon Lon Ranch. He turned on his heel, and slipped across the icy wooden drawbridge into the Royal City. Everywhere he looked, Castle Town was a war zone; medics were running to and fro tending to fallen soldiers while civilians rushed by trying to find lost loved ones or friends. Wreckage from damaged homes, carts, and businesses lay in the streets and alleyways, blocking some of them off. Link dodged around the blockages until he reached the northern suburbs, where he lived. *

His mind was elsewhere during all this; it was still back at the stables where he'd said goodbye to the new girl of his dreams. He rubbed his eyes in frustration, trying to get her unplastered from his eyelids, but he couldn't. Her ocean-blue eyes, waist-long golden blonde hair, and intoxicating smile, just kept drawing him in. She was different from all the other girls he had met before. But there was just one reason that kept haunting him, showing up when illusions of her invaded his mind.

Place and time. Place and time. Out of all the people she could've ended up with, it was with his employers. The Lon Lons had been his most steady employment for as long as he could remember. Courting their newly adopted daughter and potentially upsetting them wasn't in his plans. But how could he do it without getting fire?

"Hey, where are you..."

Link jerked out of his thoughts just in time to see blue, before walking right into someone. He saw the snow rising quickly to meet him as he and another boy crashed to the ground, having walked right into each other. Both boys laid sprawled out some feet apart, on their stomach having tripped over each others legs. Facing flushing with embarrassment, Link got to feet and saw a boy about his age, slightly taller with brown hair and brown eyes as compared to Link's blue eyes and sandy-blonde hair. He wore a blue outfit, except for his shirt, which was white and had a red eye embroidered onto the front of his shirt with a single teardrop on top of the eye.

"Watch where you're going Link," the lithe figure said, looking at him.

"Sorry about that but I," Link started to reply, helping the other boy get up, brushing snow off of his green outfit. "But...wait, how do you know my name."

"Not too difficult," the boy said, avoiding the question.

"Who are you?" Link said, a little taken aback, fingering his sword.

"My name is Sheik, a member of the Shiekah tribe, Link."

"How do you know my name?" Link asked again, backing away from the strange blue-clad boy, hand on the hilt of his blade.

"Link, the name that all Heroes of Hyrule have borne for generations since the first descended from the sky. Not that hard to guess, Hero."

"Why do you keep calling me 'Hero'?" Link asked, eyes narrowing with suspicion..

"Because you are the next Hero," Sheik said as if they were discussing the matter over drinks."Like the Hero of Time, and Twilight."

It took a few minutes for this statement to sink in.

"I'm sorry, but this is crazy," Link said in disbelief, trying to keep his cool. "Are you sure your mentally stable?"

"Nope, I'm not nuts," Sheik said, laughing. "You want proof, take a look at the back of your left hand."

Link brought his left hand up to eye level, his attention attracted by a faint golden light emanating from the back of his hand. It was a three triangle pattern, with the lower right triangle illuminated more brightly than the rest.

"You have the Triforce of Courage that belongs to the Hero, Link. That is your destiny to bear."

Link recoiled for a moment, mind filled with a million questions.

"Let me tell you a bit more, and if you don't like it, you can just walk away," Shiek said, a comforting smile on his face.

"What do you want to tell me?" Link asked, knowing only one thing.

The Shiekah always have the answers.

xxxxxxxxxxxx

(Zelda's POV again)

The next day dawned a weak winter sun over the snow-laden fields of Hyrule. I bounded down the stairs in a navy blue dress, sitting down in my traditional chair to find Orielle and Karane already digging into bowls of porridge. Karane today was dressed in a periwinkle blue dress, while Orielle was in white dress today. Talon was wearing his Lon Lon outfit that he was wearing when I first arrived at the ranch. My bowl was already laid out full of porridge ready to be eaten. Talon already finished his breakfast and had an newspaper unfolded in front of him. As I poured sugar into my bowl, my I saw a picture of a raging Bokoblin on the front page and, accompanied by the bold headline;

**"Mayhem in Castle Town; Bokoblins rage across the city!"**

_Bokoblins raged across the city yesterday...destroying homes ravaging markets..Royal Guard corralled and wiped them out...King has no comment...lawless mob...disorder...people demand compensation and action...protests turn violent... _where a few of the lines I read on the front page.

"Ewww," I said. "Not a very good report today isn't there."

"Nope," Talon said from behind his newspaper. "The King has summoned all the nobles to the castle to discuss the problem. He wants to talk to me tomorrow about food supplies and providing security around the ranch."

"Really?" I said surprised.

I had no idea, despite living under his roof that Talon was so important. I dug into my porridge as Talon continued to read the newspaper. After a few minutes, during which I downed most of my breakfast, I broke the silence again.

"So, Karane, when do you want to go and play in the snow today?" I asked cryptically, directing my gaze at Karane.

"After breakfast," Karane said, without looking at me, still ladling porridge into her mouth (after she had spoken of course).

"Play in the snow?" Orielle said, looking up from her breakfast surprised. "You never like to play in the snow."

I guess coming up with cover stories wasn't one of Karane's strong points. I threw her a panicked look.

"Of course mom," Karane assured her, giving her mom her full and undivided attention. "But Zelda here does, doesn't she?"

"What? Oh, of course I do," I said, catching on.

Orielle smiled broadly; the type of smile that mothers get when they know their children are concealing something.

"Karane, it's time to confess," she said. "You don't like to play in the snow, neither has Zelda given any indication since she had arrived her that she likes to either. What is it that you actually plan to do?"

I was completely taken by surprise; how could Orielle have known what we were going to do? I folded my arms and looked furiously look at Karane. Orielle's grin widened as she watched the exchange.

"So, Karane," she said. "What is it that you were going to do?"

Karane looked at me, a sad look on her face, then confessed.

"I was going to help Zelda learn how to control her magic by teaching her how to use it," Karane confessed, awaiting the blow.

"Then just be careful then," Orielle said. "Don't let anyone see you. Karane, don't keep it secret from us either. Your grandmother was my mother, you should remember that."

"Yes mom," Karane said, a look of relief on her face.

"That goes for you too Zelda."

"Yes, mom," I said absentmindedly.

Talon folded up his newspaper, Karane dropped her spoon into her bowl of porridge with a 'clunk', and Orielle looked at me with that same smile on her face.

"What?" I said, feeling my face turning pink.

"Nothing, it just you called Orielle 'mom'," Talon said with an approving smile. "I figured that would happen eventually."

"Sorry, I didn't mean to, I mean..."

"It's okay Zelda," Karane said. "It means you're becoming one of the family."

My blushing quickly subsided as Talon buried his nose in his newspaper again and Orielle and Karane dug into their breakfast. After the bowls were empty, utensils cleaned, and the table cleared. Karane and I dressed up in our snow gear (Orielle again made me put on three layers along with drinking three cups of her signature mix, still worried about my health after my sojourn in the blizzard nearly three weeks ago) we tramped out through the snow into the lane in front of the manor house. Right after we cleared the land, Karane pointed to the west of us.

Many trees, mostly evergreens, dotted the field out in that direction, forming an impenetrable barrier that no one could see through.

"I used to play with my cousins in and among those trees," she said.

I gave her a 'what' look.

"That was a while ago. It's were I think we can practice your magic without any interference."

"Okay, well, let's go," I said with trepidation and some excitement.

_I'm finally learning how to control my magic! _We marched through the snow into the trees until we couldn't see the manor house. Karane turned to face me, her hands on her hips, brushing her brown hair out of her eyes.

"So Zelda, I did some research in some old books my grandmother gave me and thought a lot overnight about what I saw during your um, outburst, and I think I might know how you can learn control your magic."

"How?" I asked, excitement building in my chest.

"I need give you a short history lesson first Zelda, and explain about your powers first before I can come to that."

"Okay," I said a little impatiently.

"First Zelda, magic is a dark and mysterious force that we really know little about."

"Okay," I said, failing to see how this was relevant.

"So therefore, it has to be treated with caution. But luckily Zelda, your brand of magic has a counterpart which is relatively famous."

"What's that?" I asked, amazed that there are others like me.

"Princess Zelda's magical abilities," she said with a smile.

"What?"

"Many princesses of the previous Royal Family of Hyrule, before Matinus is what I mean, had magical abilities that were well documented by Sheikah sources. All of them bore your name, Zelda as well. Yours are similar to theirs Zella. So, the techniques that those Shiekah used to help the princesses control their magic will hopefully work best for you too." *

My excitement is threatening to burst through the roof now. But a question quickly enters my mind.

"If my powers are somehow related to the Royal Family of Hyrule, does that mean I'm related to them in some way?" I asked, curious.

"Most likely not Zelda. The Royal Family warred among themselves until they were all wiped out and Matinus's ancestors then took the throne. So, unless some branch escaped, which is unlikely, I don't think so. Keep in mind, there have been many magic users throughout Hyrule's history, both good and bad."

"Okay."

"So, now we get to the 'how'. I believe you need to use your magic to learn how to control it."

_Contain it, hold it in, don't let it show, keep it secret_ reverberated throughout my mind. Those are the words my mother always spoke to me about my powers. This suggested course of action goes against everything that I've been taught.

"Okay," I said, being silent, keeping my doubts inside.

"So, I've decided to teach you two more moves in addition to Nayru's Love. They're ancient moves my grandmother taught me about. They're called Din's Fire and Farore's Wind."

"Din's Fire, and Farore's Wind," I repeated, entombing them into my mind.

"Today we'll start with Din's Fire," Karane said. "If done right, it'll produce a large fireball which the user can then control. It'll go whichever direction you want and you can explode it whenever you want."

"Sounds epic," I said, amazed.

"Start by holding your hands out in front of you Zelda, then channel your power into your hands. Go on, try it. No, like this."

Feeling quite foolish, I'd extended my arms in front of me, but Karane moved them so it looked like I was holding an imaginary ball.

"Good. Now, close your eyes and imagine a fireball in your hands."

I did as she directed and felt my body temperature drop throughout my body. A cool current, kinda what a heartbeat feels like, began to course through my body. It started in my stomach then worked its way up my spinal column, to my hands. Heat emanated from my hands, causing me to open my eyes in shock. A small red ball was floating in my hands, flame strands clearly visible in the red sphere.

"Good job Zelda," Karane said, delighted. "You're learning faster than I thought you would. Let it go and try to control it."

"Are...are...you sure?" I asked warily.

"Yes Zella, I'm sure."

I closed my eyes, drew a lot of air into my lungs, and let the fireball go. It quickly went of out of my control and flew into a snow bank. It vaporized in a spectacular mini-explosion, creating a mini snowstorm, the flake drifting lazily back down to the ground.

"There's my problem," I said, disgusted. "No control."

"Patience Zelda," Karane said. "Try again. Practice, that's what will enable you to learn control."

But after an hour of more practice and spectacular fireworks, there was no more progress. My frustration was building with each failed attempt, especially as the magic sapped my physical stamina. Eventually Karane noticed me my deteriorating physical condition, as my reacitons became slower and my eyelids started to droop.

"Enough for today Zelda," Karane said. "Are you alright?"

"I'm okay," I said. "My powers are somehow connected to my emotions and physical stamina. When I use, they deplete me. Boy am I bushed."

It was true; I every inch of my body cried for a nap, although it was still early in the morning.

"Well, let's go back to the house then," Karane suggested. "There you can get some rest. I'm also expecting a visit from Malon today."

"Malon?" I asked. "Wait, do you mean the woman who own's Malon's Womanwear?"

"Not exactly," Karane said. "Her daughter, my age and my best friend. I want to introduce you to her. You'll like her."

"I'm sure I will," I said sarcastically. "I'm rather shy as you probably know by now."

"She's fine Zella," Karane said, rapidly getting into the habit of using my new nickname. "You'll like her, I guarantee it."

When we got back inside and had unbundled, I headed straight for my bed, thoroughly exhausted. Karane watched me go, exhausted step with exhausted step with a small smile on her face. As soon as I was on the bed I blacked out.

'WHAP'

"Whuzzauppppp," I muttered, my body begging for more sleep.

"Get up sleepy-eyed," said a slightly familiar voice.

My eyes, very groggery, opened to show another teenaged girl, about my age. She had shoulder-length silky black hair, misty blue eyes, and was wearing a velvet red dress.  
>"Malon I guess," I said, rubbing the sleepiness out of my eyes, and sitting up on my bed.<p>

"You're right," the girl said giggling. "Named after my grandmother, and my mother."

"Oh," I said. "I was named after the princesses that had ruled Hyrule so gracefully in the past."

"Her current name," Karane chimed in. "Her earlier name was Mara."

"She no longer exists Karane," I retorted.

"She doesn't?" Malon said, confused.

I rolled my eyes; I was in no mode for a full explanation.

"It's a long story and one that I'm not into telling," I responded. "So, how's the store doing?"

"Absolutely amazing," Malon said, bubbling with excitement. "We recently received a load of 200 new dresses. I'm so excited."

She let out a couple of squeals.

"She loves to try on dresses," Karane informed me in an undertone.

"How bout some hot chocolate?" I suggested on a whim.

This was met with squeals of approval from the two girls. I bounded down the stairs to the kitchen to start heating the water.

xxxxxxxxx

Several hours later, the three of were lying on my bed, giggling like a bunch of young schoolgirls. Malon had completely adopted me as one of her friends and we'd been talking giggling for hours like old friends. It didn't help that Malon kept the two of us entertained with stories of her last boyfriend who went to such extremes to win her favor that he ended up face first in a pigpen at her feet. We giggled for what seemed like hours on end.

"So, Malon," Karane finally said after we had subdued our giggles, not an easy task. "What is it that you so badly wanted to show me?"

"This," Malon said, getting off the bed and pulling a scroll from out of a bag she hung on one of the four bedposts that ringed my bed.

"Oh," Karane said, a little crestfallen.

She unrolled it to its full length.

"I can't read these symbols, nor can anyone else I've asked so far," Malon explained. "I was wondering if you knew anybody who could."

Me and KArane took a close look at the scroll. The document had unique symbols, ancient-looking symbols that filled the entire scroll. It wasn't difficult at all for me to read.

"A History of the Destruction of the Royal Family of Hyrule," I read from the top line of the scroll.

Both Malon and Karane jumped, Malon falling off the bed.

"Did you just read that?" Malon said, stunned, reappearing rapidly.

"Yes," I said. "Back in Kakariko Village, when I attended school, my teacher was one of the last who knew how to read Ancient Hylian. She tried to teach is to us, but few could read it. I caught on really quickly, so she taught me personally. I can read it fluently."

"You're amazing," Malon said, impressed.

I blushed a bright pink, trying not to look too pleased with myself.

"Well, what does it say?" Karane asked excited.

Karane laid the scroll down on the bed facing me. I leaned close to the scroll to get a better look at the first sentence or row of symbols.

"The history of Hyrule, dating from the Hero of Time down to the present day," I read., pausing briefly to decipher some of the more difficult glyphs. "Go on," Malon urged.

But my eyebrows went up instead.

"What is it Zella?" Karane asked.

"'Top Secret; Eyes for the new King only'. How did you get this?" I asked Malon, stunned.

"In a trash can behind Hyrule Castle," Malon explained. "You won't believe all the valuable stuff they throw out."

"Ok," I said, a little astonished and amused at the same time.

"Well, it's clear they didn't view it as of importance anymore," I said. Well here goes..."

For the next half hour I read out the account, which turned out to be overflowing with vulgar language and other pleasantries. Several lines stood out to me;

_...King Matinus's I forces surrounded and slew the Royal Family of Hyrule in cold blood, leaving their bodies among the thousands who had fallen in their defense. No one was spared not even the daughters. Yet, several of the Royal Family members vanished and their fates are unknown to this day._

When I was done, we were all stunned; this wasn't even close to what we had been taught in school.

"Well, that makes Matinus's ancestors sound like a peace club, doesn't it?" I commented when I had finished.

"It doesn't make sense," Malon said. "That's not what actually happened."

"We don't know what actually happened," Karane pointed out. "We weren't there a hundred years ago when these events took place. All we know is what we've been taught, which is that Royal Family wiped themselves out through infighting. Then, Matinus I, the current King's father, took the throne."

I peered down the scroll, and looked at the last line which was at the bottom.

"Strange," I said. "This line is written after the original document was written."

"How do you know?" Malon asked, looking at where I was looking.

"Slight difference in the writing style itself, it's the same language but of a later date," I said. "And easier to read by far. Most of the script was difficult."

"What does it say?" Karane asked.

"_Darkness shall cover the land again. Fear not, for it is then that she that bears the Triforce of Wisdom and those chosen by fate, shall arise as from the dust, and restore a ray of light that shall lift the darkness from the land."_

"Interesting passage," Karane said. "Sounds like a prophercy of some kind."

"Yeah, it, it, just doesn't make sense," Malon said. "'Darkness, cover the land again, she who bears the Triforce of Wisdom, restore a ray of light' what does that mean?"

"No idea," I added, thinking hard, biting my lip. "It may have already been fulfilled, when light triumphanted over darkness in Hyrule's past."

I just shook my head; the passage made no sense whatsoever.

"Well," Malon said. "It doesn't really matter anyways. History can forget, like it always has done."

She took the scroll back and rolled it up.

"Malon," I said. "You sure do make interesting finds. Do you have anything else like this I can translate for you?"

"Loads," she said excited. "My dad is an amateur archeologist. You won't believe his collection."

"Well, I'll be happy to help you in anyway possible."

"Oh Zella, you will?" she said, enrapping me in a tight hug.

"Of course."

"Thanks Zelda."

She let go of me.

"Malon, time to go," comes from downstairs.

"Oh, its time to go," Malon said, grabbing her cloak, giving us each another hug then going downstairs, closing the door behind her.

When she'd gone, Karane fixed me with an interesting look.

"Zelda, do you know what this means?" she asked.

"No," I said, completely bewildered.

"It means Matinus is an usurper," she said.

I rolled my eyes and looked away from Karane, out my window and the wintry landscape outside.

"Karane, we have no proof whatsoever except a stupid scroll no one can read. And besides, what can we do about it? And what about the last line at the bottom? We probably should be focusing on that rather than history which anyone can tamper with."

"I know Zelda," Karane replied. "But we have to. It our duty. We'll keep it a secret between me, you, and Malon, she's trustworthy. For now, I reccomend we head down to our parent's library tomorrow and see what we can look up. Maybe a course of action will come to us."

I directed my gaze down at the floor for a few seconds, before locking eyes with Karane, who's now sitting across the bed from me.

"You don't get it, do you Karane?" I said in a serious voice.

"Get what?" she asked, now confused.

I held up the back of my right at our eye level. A three triangle pattern was faintly visible on the back of my hand, the lower left triangle illuminated.

"This appeared two weeks ago," I said. "I haven't been able to get rid of it at all, and I haven't found any answers anywhere."

Karane leaned towards and studied the pattern faintly glowing on the back of my hand.

"It's the symbol of the Triforce of Wisdom," she said. "Zelda, how did this appear?"

"Not to long after I arrived," and I related to her the weird experience I'd had the night after I got back to the manor house.

She looked at me then left the room, returning a few minutes later with a well-worn book which she laid down on my bed, and threw open to a page with the symbol of what was on the back of my hand. She looked at me carefully.

"Zella, something's going to happen," Karane said. "I just don't know what. The Triforce piece of Wisdom when shattered.."

"Shattered?" I repeated.

"It's an old Shiekah legend. The Triforce grants whoever possesses it his/her unbridled wish, whether it be good or bad. However, the Triforce has some sort of built-in safety mechanism."

"Like what?" I asked.

She looked down at her book, and read aloud from one of the pages.

"A person must have all three qualities in equal abundance to use the Triforce; courage, wisdom, and power. If off-balance, the Triforce will shatter into its three components, leaving the one who went after it with what they own the most. The other two will seek out and bond with individuals who own that trait which it values the most."

"And?"

She looked up at me briefly, then resumed reading.

"'Wisdom, traditionally favored princesses of the original Royal Family of Hyrule'".

Karane closed the book.

"But besides the point Zelda. Someone has shattered the Triforce, and only we and at least two other people know about it. We must find out why soon. The safety of Hyrule may hang in the balance."

"But where do we start?" I asked, resigning myself to the worse.

Karane looked out my wintry library. She paced the floor, walking back and forth until the gears in her brain whizzing at a mind-blowing pace.

"Well, if the person who has shattered it has evil intentions, they haven't acted yet, which suggests it may take sometime for them to complete their plan. We don't even know where the pieces went, except for yours of course. So, I think we should start where the Triforce is said to have lain undisturbed for millenia."

"Where? I said, recalling the legend.  
>"The Temple of Time," Karane said. "It's in front of Hyrule Castle, in the middle of Castle Town. It's open to tours. I'll get a lift from my parents tomorrow and we'll go and take a tour of the building to see what we can find, if anything."<p>

She took my hands, covering my markwith her own hand.

"No matter what happens Zelda," she said, looking me in the eye. "We're in it together till the end. Don't ever forget that."

I looked at her with tears leaking out of my eyes.

"Yes, I won't," I promised.

We embraced in a bone-crushing hug which I didn't mind at all.

"So, tomorrow," Karane said. "I'll try to get us a ride there, but we should visit Malon first. She will be of some help."

"Okay," I said.

"Let's get to bed. We have a long day ahead of us tomorrow," Karane said, giggling.

xxxxxxxxxxxx

Link raised the green medallion to the sky in triumphant, sweat running off his forehead, many cuts bleeding on his arms and body. He couldn't believe it; he had done it.

"Good job Link," said a voice behind him.

Link spun around to see Sheik behind him, a rare grin on his face.

"Now," he said. "We'll go and put this in the Temple of Time. Meanwhile Link, study your skills and wait for destiny to give you your next assignment."

***I'm covering primarily Zelda's point of view and her adventures, but I do intend to insert more Link into this story in the future. **

***This is guesswork, as the video games really don't devote much attention to time periods in which Princess Zelda was being trained by Shiekah. **


	6. Chapter 5-Temple of Time

**This chapters is dedicated to Joystick Gamer, my first reviewer.**

PLEASE REVIEW SO THAT THIS STORY MIGHT BE BETTER!

I don't own the Legend of Zelda

Foreword; The Temple of Time in this building is a mixture of the one that appeared in Ocarina of Time and modern-day church buildings. Also, a room similar to the Chamber of Sages will also appears. And I've experienced some writer's block recently so on this chapter, so it might not be as good as the ones that have come before it.

Chapter 5-Temple of Time

"Come on Zelda, wake up, wake up," came from right next to my ear.

I jolted awake, sitting straight up in my bed.

"Karane!," I said. "Why do you have to do that?"

"Sorry Zelda," came her voice. "It's what I like to do."

Her face swam into view as my sleep-deprived eyes slowly opened.

"Come on, its time to go to the Temple of Time," she said, excited.

Karane had on blue dress, with a velvet snow cloak on top, and her black winter boots. Her brown hair was in an elaborate bun at the back of her head. I looked at the window and saw the sun peaking across the snow-locked Faron Woods to the east. It was just after dawn.

"Karane, this time it's just _after_ the crack of dawn," I said, irritated.

"Papa is going to meet with the King today, and we're going to the Temple of Time. He said we had to be up bright and early," Karane explained, excitement in her voice.

She squealed with delight.

"I'm sure 'bright and early' didn't mean the crack of dawn."

Her eyebrows furrowed for a moment, before she pulled the covers off of me.

"Time to get up," she said in a stern voice, throwing my blankets to the floor.

She skipped out of the room (how can she do that in boots?) and closed the door behind her. I got up, my destroyed blonde hair covering my face and my eyes. I pushed it out of my eyes and walked like a zombie from my bed. I went to my closet, rummaging through the dresses. I ended up choosing a light blue skirt and a blue blouse instead of a traveling dress, choosing to bear the discomfort of the cold, which I had to do all the time living in the Faron Woods which had violent storms quite often.

I tamed my wild hair, choosing just to let it flow freely down my back without any elaborate get up, except to arrange my two small strands near my face in the way I did in back in the Castle Town fiasco. I slipped down the stairs sometime later to find no bowls or breakfast on the table. Instead, everyone was waiting for me by the door near the kitchen, fully dressed in their winter gear.

"What's going on?" I asked, a bit bewildered.

"We're going into Castle Town again," Orielle informed me. "We're going to eat breakfast at an eatery* in town. Then we'll take you two and Malon to the Temple of Time while Talon meets with the King."

About an hour later we were walking (or sliding) across the ice-bound into town. In the main square just inside the city gates, was Malon, already dressed up in a red snow cloak that had 'MW' embroidered on it in gold letters.

"Malon," Karaen yelled, waving."

"Karane, Zelda, nice to see you again," Malon said, running to each of us and giving us hugs.

"Hi, Orielle, Talon," she said, addressing our parents.

"How did she know where we were coming?" I asked Karane.

"Mail," Malon said, filling us in. "It travels extremely fast in Hyrule."

"I posted a letter late last night before I went to bed," Karane explained.

"Oh," I said, surprised.

"We're off to Malon's Eatery," Karane said.

"How many shops does your family own Malon?" I asked, amazed.

"Too many," Malon said. "We have a small empire, if you want to call it that. At least one shop in every town. I plan to downsize when I take over the family business."

Our eyes took in the streets of Castle Town as we walked deeper into the city. The wreckage had been mostly cleared, thrown into piles in the middle of the streets, waiting to be properly disposed of.

"Wow, they've sure cleaned up fast," I said.

"Yeah," Talon said. "If they didn't, the King would lose a lot of support."

We went into Malon's Eatery where they (the staff) served us a large breakfast of pancakes and syrup. Afterwards, the entire group went outside.

"You girls have fun at the Temple of Time," Talon informed us. "Tours start about now."

Talon went across the street towards Hyrule Castle, while Orielle led us towards the Temple of Time. It was a magnificent, three steeple brick building near Hyrule Castle. In the courtyard that had beautifully manicured gardens lining a cobblestone path that lead up to the entrance. Waiting there, shivering in the cold, was a young woman in a blue blouse and an orange skirt. Her hair was brown hair, as were her eyes and she was a head shorter than me, about Malon's height. Her blue blouse had "Staff" embroidered on the front of it in white. She gave us a false smile when she saw our small group.

"Welcome to the Temple of Time," she said in a sweet voice. "Are you here for the tour?"

"Yes we are," Orielle said.

"So, this is the plan, look at everything, check every inch of the building," Karane told the two of us in a whisper.

"Got it," me and Malon said together.

"Malon, Karane, Zelda, time to go," we heard from ahead of us.

"Okay mom," me and Karane said together.

"You've switched fully to mom, haven't you noticed?" Karane prodded, as we walked through the pillars that flanked the large door that led inside.

"Of course," I said. "I can't keep on calling her 'Orielle' forever. Besides, you guys okayed it last night."

The tour guide led us through the giant marble doors into the temple itself. I gasped in awe as we walked in. It was huge; it's marble ceiling rivaling the height of the tallest trees in the Faron Woods. Red cushion benches filled the chapel, big enough to hold at least 3,000 people. The white marble walls had enormous stained-glass windows filled with scenes from Hyrule's history, everything from the dawn of the kingdom to the Hero of Twilight. And directly ahead of us was a raised platform with an extra row of seats I assumed were for the priests who officiated here. I looked back at Karane and Malon, who were taking it all in. Both were examining every inch of the edifice with their eyes.

"What are we looking for exactly?" I asked in an undertone.

"Clues to the previous Temple of Time," she whispered.

"Previous?" I repeated, a little confused.

"Yes, there.."

"Karane, Zelda, Malon, we're moving on," Orielle called.

"Later," Karane said to me, and Malon, who I just realized had listening in.

xxxxx

(Out of Zelda's POV)

Link and Shiek didn't even bother to listen to the tour guide, now entering Temple of Time. Both boys were impatient, but trying not to show it. Link cast a brief glimpse ahead when he saw something that made his heart flutter. A girl, about his height with waist-long blonde hair was standing several paces in front of him with another tour group. Could it be...She turned around to talk to a brown-haired girl and Link's heart leaped into his throat. It was Zelda! What was she doing here? She couldn't have turned up at a worse time.

Shiek seemed to read Link's mind.

"Focus Hero," he whispered into Link's ear. "You can go after your crush later. We need to deliver that medallion first."  
>"Sorry," Link said, then added in a pleading voice. "What if she makes it really difficult?"<p>

Shiek rolled his eyes.

"Then don't look at her," he whispered sternly.

"What if her ocean-blue eyes distracting me?" Link added out of nowhere.

Shiek resisted the urge to slap the hapless Hero in the face. He pulled a small pin out from his belt and showed it to Link.

"This is what is called a sleeper pin. It knocks people out for five to twenty minutes. Fine, if you want, I'll knock you out and we'll wait till she's gone, that'll solve your problem."

Link didn't like the sound of it. It took everything he had to avoid looking at the girl who had stolen his heart.

xxxxxxxxxxx

(Back to Zelda's POV)

We moved on deeper into the building towards the altar itself.

"This is where the priests hold the services in honor of the Goddesses," the tour guide said in a bored monotone. "You are now free to go anywhere in here except the stage area."

"Girls, stay close," Orielle said, a note of suspicion in her voice.

"Don't worry, we will," Karane said.

"Orielle," said a voice nearby.

"Kristen," Orielle said, pleasantly surprised and they immediately got into a conversation.

"Just what we've been waiting for," Karane said. "Spread out, look for signs of anything that's unusual."

Me, Malon, and Karane spread out over the Temple seats, examining the benches, all while trying to act casual. We did this for about twenty minutes until someone tapped me on the shoulder.

"Karane founds something," Malon said in an excited voice.

She grabbed my hand and lead me to where Karane was standing.

"Look," she said pointing at the ground.

Carved into where the bench met the floor, so cleverly hidden that no one with an untrained eye could see it, was the Shiekah eye-teardrop symbol.

"Hurry," I said, acting as the lookout, casting occasional looks over my shoulder at where Orielle and Kirsten were talking. "Orielle and the tour guide both look like they're ready to move on to the next part of the Temple."

"It looks like a button," Malon said, ignoring me, giving the carving a kick.

"No, Mal..." Karane said.

A massive white light erupted right in front of the three of us. In prefect sync, I felt a burst of magic erupt from me at the same time, causing pain to shoot through my body, and I felt my knees buckle beneath me. I collapsed to the floor, grimacing as the pain reverberated throughout my body.

"ZELDA!" I heard Malon and Karane yell as I collapsed to the floor.

Orielle was at my side in an instant.

"Are you alright Zelda?" she asked, feeling my head as the pain slowly receded.

"Yes," I said, getting up gingerly. "I'm fine."

She didn't pronounce me okay until she had done a complete check-over.

"Well, I don't know what happened, but we'll have you checked out when we're done," Orielle said.

"What happened?" Malon asked.

"We'll discuss it later," I whispered to them.

The five of us followed the tour guide, who now had a concerned look on her face, towards the stage area of the temple.

xxxxx

(Out of Zelda's POV)

Only Link and Shiek saw and understood what had actually happened. Link tried to rush to Zelda's aid, but Shiek grabbed the back of his tunic.

"Easy Hero," he whispered. "Patience. She has plenty of people to attend to her."

"She's hurt, how am I supposed to have patience?" Link protested.

Shiek resisted another urge to slap him across the face or poke him with the sleeper pin, although it would make it a lot easier.

"She's fine; her magic reacted with a special device that my ancestors put there to let the priests know when...certain people arrive. We're both going to the same place, just trust me," Shiek said in a stern voice. "You'll get to talk to her then as long as you like."

Link stopped struggling to get away, finally deciding to put his trust in his Shiekah guide.

_He's learning, _Shiek thought, inwardly smiling.

xxxxxxx

Our tour guide lead us onto the stage, pass the altar and through a small stone door to a another chamber that had no furnishings. There was a small square box in the middle of the room, big enough to hold a sword.

"This is where the Master Sword was for centuries until the last Hero hid it in a place only he knew," the tour guide explained. "He was compelled to do it by the greed of the previous Royal Family..."

This is were Malon, I, and Karane zoned out with our 'glazed over' looks that school teachers commonly receive without noticing. We had stopped believing in the regime's claims as of yesterday after we read the scroll. Instead, we become interested in the stone wall behind the small square box. To the normal eye, it was just a wall, but to trained eyes (well, kind of) like ours, who'd seen the Shiekah symbol, it was cleverly hidden within the bricks/stones that made up the wall.

"Look," Karane whispered to the two of us. "Do you guys see it?"

"Yes," me and Malon responded together in a whisper.

"I wonder how it got here?" I wondered.

"Probably because the Shiekah had infiltrated the workers," I suggested.

"A possiblity," Malon noted.

"Hey you three," Orielle called over her shoulder. "Quiet down."

"Sorry," the three of us chorused together.

The three of us ventured up the wall, like everybody else and examined the brick work more closely. I'd just touched it when I felt the floor vanish from beneath my feet.

"Aaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!" the three of us shouted as we plunged down a chute.

"Karane, Malon, Zelda!" I heard Orielle shout.

We plunged into darkness, the chute curving and twisting as it went down deeper. I swear our screams echoing in the tube, could be heard all the way back up at the surface.

"Ooofff," I said as I finally came to a stop on something soft, feeling someone slam into me, sending pain shooting up my body.

"Aaaahhh," came from behind the two of us. _Karane!_

Both of us tried to run, but Karane slammed into both of us before we could go far, throwing both of us down again.

"KARANE!" me and Malon said.

"Sorry," Karane said.

The three of us said nothing for a few minutes, nursing our minor injuries.

"What happened?" I finally said.

"You touched the wall, which activated a trapdoor which we happened to be standing on," Malon chimed in.

As if in response to her comment, torches flickered into life all around us, as if a ghost was lighting them. Their light revealed that we were in a small, dank, stone-lined chamber with some sort of soft padding we were all lying on.

"Aaahh," I said, shuddering. "This is getting creepier by the minute."

"Well, we only have one option," Karane said, taking charge.

She pointed to a staircase that lead out of the chamber.

"It's a start," Malon said, leading us up the staircase.

Around thirty minutes later there was no sign of the surface, just staircase after staircase after staircase. Our legs were heaving and yelling at us, not used to this. Even Karane, the most athletic out of the three of us, was panting heavily.

"So," I said, finally breaking the silence. "Where do you think we are?"

As if in answer, torches sprang to life all around us revealing _another_ dank, small chamber. In the middle was skeleton, which just was a pile of bones; which quickly assembled themselves into a skeleton with a metal helmet on its ugly-looking head, and holding two nasty-looking blades in its arms. It roared at us, then began to advance.

"What is that?" I asked no one in particular.

"A Stalfos," Karane said.

"A what?" Malon repeated.

"A Stalfos, a soldier of the undead..."

"Forget it, let's run!" I shouted.

The three of us ran to the right, away from the Stalfos and finding a staircase, ran up it with ugly in hot pursuit.

We started climbing as fast as our feet could carry us, until we reached an upper chamber with no exit.

"We're trapped," Malon said, stating the obvious.

I looked down at our feet and spotted _weapons. How do weapons magically appear when you need them?_

"Malon, Karane, look," I said pointing directly in front of me.

There was a quiver full of arrows, a faded golden bow, a belt full of knives, and a sword there. I grabbed the bow and the quiver of arrows; Karane grabbed the belt of knives while Malon grabbed the sword. I examined the bow; it was a faded gold color, very strong, and it perfectly fitted into my hands. I placed an arrow in the string, and aimed for the skeleton's eye socket, putting an arrow in its eye. It stumbled backwards, roaring in pain. Malon, who'd hadn't been told of this ability, gasped in shock.

"Malon, Zelda," Karane said. "I have an idea of how to stop it."

"How?" Malon and I chorused together.

"Well, first let's try to keep it off-balance, then Malon or I will sneak around and slice its spinal column, its primary weak point."

"What about me?" I interjected.

"Well, the idea was for you to do what you just did to it Zelda," Karane said. "You don't have the weapons that me and Malon did."

"Okay," Malon I said, not fully convinced the plan is going to work.

"Let's do it," I said, we having no other option.

The three of us split up to confuse the Stalfos and divert its attention. I put arrows in the bow and sent arrow after arrow flying at it, which only served to make it even angrier. It charged at me, it's ulgy footsteps sounding with a sickening crunch into the floor. I backed away as it came closer and closer...a series of knives sliced into its feet, causing it to trip and crash right in front of me. Karane stood next to me, several more knives ready. She'd just saved my life. I saw Malon meanwhile, was trying to sneak around to where the Stalfos's spinal column was, so she could finish the ugly beast off. The Stalfos changed tactics; it charged at Karane, and thrust one of its ugly blades at her, to which Karane leapt into the air. My mouth dropped open as she did a graceful cart-wheel over the blade aiming to end her life, despite being in her winter gear, and the blade embedded in the wall. The Stalfos tried and tried to pull the blade out, but it sunk so deep that the skeleton had to abandon it. Karane looked at me and I seemed to read her thoughts. _We truly are becoming sisters._

"Ready?" she said.

"Go," I shouted, putting an arrow on the bow.

We both charged at the Stalfos at once. Karane flung several knives at it while we sent, which it deflected with its reamugly blades. It plunged its lonew blade down at us several times, missing us and leaving nice impact craters in the stone floor. A near miss knocked me to my me knees, causing me to slide directly under the Staflos legs, landing on my back. Taking full advantage, I aimed the bow up and sent an arrow into its...well, you get it. It started jumping up and down, howling in pain, and lost its balance, landing on it's back.

"Malon, now!" Karane yelled.

Malon, now behind the Staflos, raced foreward and plunged her blade into its spinal column. The Staflos stopped struggling, and lay still.

"We did it," Karane yelled, accompanied by the excited yells of me and Malon.

Suddenly before our very eyes it gathered its bones and blade, minus a few in its spinal column and feet.

"How?" I asked, d

Getting to its feet it kicked Malon before she could react, knocking her into the wall. She dropped the blade and fell to the ground, whether dead or uncosous I did not know. I had to fight the grief welling up within me, as big and ugly was still alive and kicking.

"Karane, get behind him and try again," I shouted at her. "I'll distract it."

As it turned its face towards us, I put a bow in my arrow and sent an arrow into the same eye I'd hit earlier. It roared in anger and went for me again. Karane raced behind it's back, but before she could put blades into its spinal column, it struck out of one of its ugly feet and kicked her against the wall near Malon. I was now alone.

"Come on Zelda, you can do this," I said to myself, throwing my bow and quiver of arrows aside.

I raised my hands, and summoned my magic, focusing that elusive fireball. Red tendrils gathered within my hands, forming a roaring fireball. It let it loose, aiming in my mind for the spinal column. To my surprise, it obeying every mental command I gave it. It exploded right in the spinal column, shattering it. The Stalfos collapsed to the ground, and disappeared into a purple cloud. I could feel myself fading, a combination of shock and the effort of producing the fireball. I fell first to my knees, then to the ground.

"Kara...ne...Ma...l..on.." I uttered before I blacked out.

xxxxxxxxxx

(Out of Zelda's POV)

Link and Shiek had been going for sometime when they reached a chamber with no visible exit. As the torches flickered into life, Link's blood ran cold. To his right, face down and unresponsive, was Zelda, her long blonde hair concealing her face. He tried to run to his side, only to have Shiek grab his shoulder.

"We've got three girls to take care of," Shiek reminded him. "Discipline is absolutely essential Hero."

"Sorry," Link said, rapidly becoming irritated with his Shiekah companion.

Both carried Karane and Malon over to where Zelda was lying unresponsive.

"They'll be okay," said a voice behind them that made both jump.

"Rauru," Shiek said.

Link and Shiek both spun around to behold an old man, hunched over a cain. He was balding on top, but had a flowing white beard that ended at his feet. He was wearing red priest robes with a sash at the hem that had the Hyrulean Royal Family crest on it.

"Welcome back Shiek, and welcome Link," Rauru said. "The girls will be alright. I can sense no serious injuries in all three of them. We have things to discuss."

xxxxxxx

(Zelda's POV)

My eyes slowly opened to find myself not in the dank, dark room where we'd nearly lost to big ugly, but in a completely white chamber. I mean white; white walls, white beds, white floors, everything. I was laying on a white bed, with the most comfortable sheets you could imagine. Malon and Karane were both standing by my bedside. The three of us awkwardly embraced.

"We survived, we survived," Malon summed it all up for us.

"Yes, you all survived," said a voice that made us all jump.

We broke apart and looked behind us to see an old aged priest standing near the three triangle symbol.

"My name is Rauru," he said before we could ask any questions. "You three are lucky to be alive. I've healed all your injuries."

"Thanks," the three of us chorused together.

"Where are we?..." I began.

"I don't have time for questions," he interrupted us. "You'll get your answers in due time."

"I believe these are yours," he said, pointing to our weapons, which were lying against the head of Karane's bed.

"No, we just found them," Malon said.

"You found them because I put them there," Rauru informed us, ignoring the shocked looks on our faces. "Your arrivals here were foretold long ago"

"Really?" I said, skepticism clear in my voice.

"Yes," he said, shooting me an inquisitive look in return.

"You aren't kidding around with us, are you?" I asked.

Rauru smiled.

"No I'm not. You might not believe this, but Hyrule is in danger. You three, along with many others, have great roles to play to stop the destruction of this land. I foresaw and warned your ancestors about their illustrious descendants."

I still didn't believe him.

"Malon," he said, looking at Malon. "This sword belonged to your grandfather. He left it in my possession to give to you when you were old enough."

"Really?" Malon said, picking up the sword and examining every inch of it. "It was his."

"How do you know?" I asked, thoroughly intrigued.

She showed me two initials engraved in the blade.

"These are his initials carved in his signature style," she informed me.

"Oh," was all I could really say.

"Karane," he said. "These weapons are from your grandmother, Helena."

Karane picked up hers and examined every knife and needle.

"Thank you sir," she said, bowing slightly.

"Zelda the skeptical one," he said.

I snorted in disgust; _did he really have to point that out?_

"Fine then, I'm sure you'll recognize_ this_," he said, thrusting a paper into my hands.

The paper was tattered around the edges, but still. Someone had scrawled on it in a hand I knew as well as my own;

_My dear Mara_

_This bow has been passed down from mother to daughter as far back as my ancestors can remember. Now it is time that it is yours. I'm entrusting it to Rauru until you are of age._

I tried to suppress the tears that rolled down my face. It was as if my mother was reaching out to me, though I could never see her again.

"Is she, gone?" I asked Rauru out of nowhere.

I'd always clung to a small ray of hope that somehow she survived the raid on our village and was out there, somewhere, still alive.

"The Goddesses allowed me to see the raid on your village," he said. "No one survived except for you."

I broke down completely, losing my composure, tears streaming anew down my face. Karane took me in her arms and comforted me until I regained control of my emotions. I picked up the bow and examined every inch of it like Malon, admiring its handiwork like I hadn't done before.

"Now," Rauru said. "Due to the fact your parents might not approve of having such weapons, I'm going to magic them to your quarters. You must keep them hidden except from yourselves. Am I understood?"

"Yes," the three of us said together as one, taking him very seriously.

He waved his hand and they all vanished before a door opened and Link and another boy came in.

"Out that way will take everyone back to the main temple," Rauru said, indicating the door which the two boys

The five of us headed out, with three of us, namely me, Malon, and Karane eager to get out of these tunnels.

"Well, I'm predicting that Link will show up any minute," I whispered in an undertone to Karane as we started the first staircase.

Sure enough, he did exactly what I thought he would, hopping around the other boy, Malon, and Karane as we went up the stairs so he would walk right next to me.

"Hi Zelda," he said in what he clearly thought was a winning voice.

A debate began within my head; one side arguing to crush his hopes (and his ego) for once and for all, to encourage him, just ignore him, or explore what this guy actually had to offer. Just one thing was certain; I really didn't feel anything for him. But I did know feelings can change.

"So, um," he said, obviously nervous, though clearly trying to hide it. "Would you like to um...you.."

"What?" I said, cutting him off.

"...go on a date with me?" he finally got out, his voice higher than it normally was.

"Karane, Malon, move on, I'll catch up," I said to them.

I really didn't want an audience. Both giggled before moving on with Shiek who had an annoyed look on his face.

"Look Link," I said to him, keeping his attention fully on me. "I've just been through more in four weeks than most people go through in forty years of living. There is a storm raging within me that I cannot control and no one except myself and time can heal. So, the answer is no. But once it has subsided, I'll seriously consider your offer. Give me some time Link. If you don't, it's an outright no and don't bother me again. Got it?"*

I hoped that I had gotten through that thick skull of his. He seemed to contemplate what I had said for a few minutes.

"When will that be?" he asked.

I swear I just about toppled over. _Are guys really supposed to ask that?_

"I don't know," I said, throwing my arms up, my voice rising and irritation visible in every syllable. "You try losing your entire family and your mother and then you'll understand."

"Ooh," he said. "Sorry Zelda."

_Now that's more like it._

"Hurry up, we need to catch up with the others."  
>xxxx<p>

After some more walking up staircases, we came to another door. Karane and I were in the front and opened it, walking out into the sunlight filtering in through the stain glass windows. Hardly had I come out when the two of us saw Orielle barreling towards us. My eyes widened briefly before she pulled both of us into a bone-crushing hug.

"Karane, Zelda, you're alright," she said, her grip on the two of us tightening.

She let go of us and fixed both of us with the glare mothers give their children. Both me and Karane cowered under her gaze. _I'm truly one of the family if I'm cowering like Karane. _

"Don't you two ever do anything like that again, or you'll never leave the house to do something like this."

"Yes mom," both of us said together.

On that note, she brightened up considerably.

"Sorry Malon you had to go through it to," she said, giving Malon a hug as well.

"I'd rather go through it with these two," she said, patting both of us on the back. "Than anyone else."

"Orielle," said a voice behind us.

All three of us shrieked and whirled around to see Rauru behind us.

"They've been through a lot, so they need some bedrest," he informed her.

"No problem, Rauru," she replied.

"Wait, where's Link and the other boy?" Malon asked.

We looked behind us and didn't see the two of them.

"Where'd they go?" Karane said.

"What? Was Link with you?" Orielle asked, confused.

"Wait, whose was the other boy who was with us?" I said, confused

"They went another way," Rauru said.

"Mom," I said. "It's a long story. Can we discuss it at home, preferably after a nap."

"Oh, of course," she said.

The next little while passed like a blur after what the three of us had been through. We dropped Malon off at Malon's Womanwear's picked up Talon at Hyrule Castle, then headed back to the ranch where Karane and I collapsed into the couch in the Den. The Den (as Karane called it) was one of the four main room on the first floor of the Lon Lon manor house. Located to the right of the kitchen, it was furnished with two couches big enough to hold four people each, and a fireplace to keep the place warm. I had no sooner hit the couch when I was out like a light.

"Zelda, ZELDA WAKE UP!" someone yelled, slapping my face.

I groggily got up before opening my eyes, revealing Karane, her hair a complete mess, sitting next to me. I pushed her off the couch and turned over.

"Ow," Karane said, a little put off.

"Let me sleep Karane," I said.

A few minute of blissful sleep followed before ice cold water splattered onto my face.

"What the..?" I said, jumping up.

My eyes locked with Karane, who was gasping for breath.

"YOU!" I shouted at her, tackling her to the ground liked I used to do with my other siblings before my father took off with them.

"Zelda, wha..." Karane stuttered before I had her pinned to the ground. "Okay, you win, you win."

I got off of her, a victory smile on my face.

"Zelda, you have to see something," Karane said.

"What?" I said in an annoyed voice.

She had practically dragged me up the stairs to my room because I was so exhausted and I didn't want to go in the first place.

"Look," she said pointing.

To my suprise, a quiver of arrows and the golden bow I'd used so masterfully in the brush with the Stalfos were there, laying against my bed, as if I had placed it there before I crashed in the Den.

"How, how did this get here?" I asked Karane.

"No idea," Karane said. "Mine was here too."

She held up the belt full of knives.

"These aren't ordinary knives," Karane said. "They're Shiekah knives and sleeper pins...things that put people out for a few minutes for a quick getaway or interrogation."

"Don't use those on me," I said sternly.

"No, of course not," she said, laughing. "You'll probably used Nayru's Love and simply put me to sleep instead."

Both of us broke down into fits of the giggles that took several minutes to clear up.

"Well," I said, wiping away the tears. Thank goodness Rauru healed us. Our injuries must've been very severe to say the least. I don't ever want to meet a Staflos again."

"Neither do I," Karane agreed.

"But, that doesn't put us anywhere closer to finding out what or who _is _threatening Hyrule. All we found out was that our ancestors left us some heirlooms and that Hyrule is in danger like we thought. Now what?"

"I don't know," Karane said.

"I think our library," Karane said. "Look at what has happened in the past. Maybe that'll have some clues for us in the future."

"Whopppeeee..." I said, thrilled. "More research."

"I never said it was going to be easy," Karane said. "I'd better post a letter to Malon letting her know our future plans."

"Karane, Zelda," Orielle's voice came from below. "We need to talk."

Both me and Karane looked at each other.

"How much should we tell her?" I asked.

"Everything except why we went to the Temple of Time," Karane said. "If we don't, she'll figure it out one way or another and she won't like."

"I'll take your word for it," I said as we left my bedroom.


	7. Chapter 6-The Darkness Begins

I don't own the Legend of Zelda

**Merry Christmas to my readers!**

**Review if you want.**

Chapter 6-Darkness Begins

_ I awoke in the middle of a white room, the same as in my dream that happened shortly after I collapsed in the snow two months ago. The Zelda who descended from the sky was the only one there this time. She was standing opposite to me, looking out the same window she was in my first dream, wearing the white dress I'd seen her in last time. She turned around and looked me straight in the eyes._

_"My daughter Zelda," she said in her sweet voice, approaching me. "We meet again. I wish it could be under better circumstances. Listen to me, your life will depend on it."_

_ I gave her my full and undivided attention._

_"The darkness that threatens Hyrule is at hand. The current monarch has been igorant and no one is prepared for it. The time has come that you must learn and grow with what is inside of you. Your destiny, your magic, the Triforce that glows within your hand."_

_"What is the darkness, who's behind it, and when will it strike?" I asked, desparate for more anwsers. _

_ She ignored my question._

_"Peace, my daughter," she replied. "All your questions will be anwsered in due time. You must see something else. Brace youself, for it won't be pleasant, but you must see it. I'm sorry, but it's my duty."_

_ She waved her hand and the current scene disappeared from before my eyes. I was now standing in a vast stone hall, in what looked like to be a throne room in a castle. I looked down to see that the white dress I'd been wearing in the dream was gone. I was now wearing a pink and purple dress made of the finest material I'd ever seen. White gloves covered my hands, ending well past my elbows. A sash contained the emblem of the Triforce along with what looked like to be a bird underneath it was attached to the hem of my dress. Around my neck was a purple necklace of the finest precious stones I'd ever laid eyes on._

_ I felt something unusual resting on the top of my head and looked to my right and saw a mirror. On top of my head was a crown, with a priceless red ruby in the center, with the chains vanishing into the locks of my blonde hair, ending as four white edges over my ears. My eyes took in the room, which had banners lining the walls with the same symbols on the sash that is on the front of my dress. 'BANG'. The massive wooden doors were blasted clean off their hinges, quite a feat considering they looked like they could survive anything. _

_ A man in black robe and cloaked walked into the throne room, with two prisoners in tow, massive moblins leading them along. I didn't reconize them, except that that they were from among my people. _

_"Why are you here? What are you doing in my kingdom and marching in so balantly like that?" I demanded in a voice not like my own._

_"My dear princess," he said. "I have the whole of Hyrule under my complete control. You have two options; surrender, or watch the merciless slaughter of your people."_

_ My mind raced for a few minutes, unsure of what to do. There was only one option. I dropped the golden bow I was holding, hearing it clanter to the ground as a sign of surrender._

_"Good," he said in an evil voice. "Dispose of the guards and prisoners."_

_"But, you said..."_

_"I never said I wouldn't slaughter your people anyways," he spat._

_ The moblins pulled out knives and put them to the throats of their prisoners, who were both looking at me with an expression that was too familiar; the one my mother gave me before she sacrificed her life. Several more monsters raced into the room, charging straight at me with swords and clubs raised..._

_"NOOOOOOOO!" _

I jolted awake, sitting up in bed, feeling cold sweat running down my forehead. I was shaking uncontrollably all over, breathing in deep, erratic breathes. My mind was still replaying the images, torturing me even futhur. A dark figure burst into the room not long after I cried out.

"Zelda, are you alright?" Karane asked, racing to my bedside, dressed in a pale blue nightgown.

She got on my bed on all fours and crawled over to me. She looked at me for a brief second, my face illuminated by the moonlight streaming in through my window, then pulled me into an embrace. She cooed words of comfort to me, rubbing my back, trying to get me to calm down. She did this for several minutes.

"Are you okay?" Karane asked again.

"No..no..I." was all I could get out, still in shock.

"What was it, what was your nightmare about?"

"It..it..was.," I stuttered, breaking into sobs at the vision that was tormenting me.

"Please Zelda, tell me about it," she pleaded with me.  
>"N..n..o.o" I choked out.<p>

"Zelda, please, tell me your nightmare," she coaxed.

Before I could stop myself the entire dream came spilling out, every single detail, from the appearance of Zelda to the scene in the throne room. Karane took in everything I said. Once I was done, I could feel my breathing return to normal and my shaking gradually subsided.

"Zelda," she said. "Are you sure you saw what you saw?"

"Yes, I know what I saw," I said, rubbing my eyes, the dream still burned onto my the back of my eyelids.

She went quiet for a minute before her features lit up like a newly-lit candle.

"I've got it," she said.

"Got what?" I asked.

"I do know that Shiekah are said to interpet such dreams," she said. "I know where some of them still are. We could ask them for help."

I heard the male Cuccuos on the ranch start cawing and wondered why I had never heard them before.

"It's almost dawn," she said, finally letting go of me. "Don't go back to sleep. The dream might reoccur."

"I won't," I said, my voice still not normal.

xxxxx

About midday, I was sitting in my bedroom on my bed, nose buried in a book, trying to distract myself from the nightmare of the last night, when the door opened and Karane came in. She was carry a folded-up black bundle; some sort of clothing.

"What's that?" I asked

She unfolded the bundle and held it up by the shoulders for me to see what it was. It was a black cloak. The cloak would almost completely cover my body if I put it on, and it had a hood to cover one's face.

"What is that for?"

"Sneaking out at night," she said. "We have some investigating to do. It's the only way we can get to the Shiekah. And we've been hitting dead ends for the last few weeks."

"Are you sure about this?" I asked.

"No," she said, biting her lip. "I can't imagine the trouble we'll get in if we get caught."

"Then, why are we doing this?"

"Because it's clear all of our lives are in danger and no one will believe us execpt for the Shiekah. I'm going to take you to a small cavern not too far from here. It looks like a hole in the ground, but it's a Shiekah hideout. My grandmother used to take me there when I was a small girl. We can tell them of your suspicions and introduce you to them.

"But..."

We leave tonight," Karane said, throwing the cloak at me.

I decided that our safety overruled any real objection I had. So, the rest of the day passed slowly for me. I had a pile of emotions building within me, mainly excitement mixed with dread. _What if we got caught? How severe would be the consequences would we'd face? _Luckily we hadn't been grounded for what had happened in the Temple of Time (technically it really wasn't my fault, I didn't know the wall was linked to a trapdoor) but the resulting lecture Mom gave us afterwards wasn't fun.

I had one other problem; due to my nightmare, I'd woken up far too early for my comfort. My eyes were still heavy with sleep. When the night came, I laid down on my bed fully dressed in my white outfit I wore during the fiasco in Castle Town a few weeks prior (it's the easiest for me to run in, plus the cloak will cover it so no one will see the white) waiting for Karane to come and get me. But I was out when I hit the pillow.

"Zelda, Zelda, wake up," she said not long after I drifted off.

"Go away," I mumbled in my sleep, rolling over.

She didn't bother me again until I felt a poke in my back. Pain radiated outward from the poke and thoroughout my body. I jolted awake, ready to cry out when she put her hand over my mouth, stifling any sound that came out.

"It's what you deserve for going to sleep," she whispered in a stern voice, taking her hand off my mouth.

"What was that?" I asked, refering to the poke.

"Forget it," she said. "We've got to go."

"Will we need our weapons?" I asked.

"Yes, I've got mine."

I got up, stretched my arms and legs, gathered my bow and the quiver of arrows, both of which I'd hidden in my warderobe among all my dresses. I put on the cloak on first, strapped the quiver of arrows onto my back, and did likewise with the bow.

"We need to hurry," Karane said. "Zombies appear late at night on Hyrule Field."

We followed the well-worn track that I'd followed in a blizzard over two months prior, trying to avoid the mud puddles that have been forming from the spring thaw. When we reached the perimeter of the ranch, we broke into a slow run, heading for the trees where I'd had my first magic training session. Karane seemed to know the way quite well, winding through the trees in a direct course. She lead me quite a ways, until she held out a hand to stop me in my tracks.

"Wait a minute," she said,"it's around here somewhere. Start looking for a hole in the ground."

We began to look around, spreading out over a wide area, staring at the ground, trying to see with the only light coming from the stars and the moon.

"Aaahahhh," I yelled as I fell into a hole that I hadn't seen, landing with a crash at the bottom.

I rubbed my sore bottom, getting to my feet. I looked up at the hole, a couple feet above my head. This was no natural depression in the ground.

"Karane, I think I found it," I said loudly.

"Hey, what're you doing here?," came a rough voice from behind me.

I whirled around to find a rough-looking man behind me. He had dark eyes, black hair, was wearing a blue robes with the Shiekah symbol on the shirt, and was holding two ugly-looking knives, pointed directly at me.

"I..I...I," was all I could get out, staring at the two knives pointed at my heart.

"Back down," said Karane's stern voice from behind me. "She's with me and is very important."

"Sorry Karane," said the man. "It's been many years since you left your training."

"Well," she said matter-of-factly. "I didn't approve of the Shiekah lifestyle. But anyways, this girl, Zelda, has the Triforce piece of Wisdom and has been having some ominous dreams lately."

"Really?," he said, as if this was an earth shatteirng developement.

I pulled off my hood, exposing my face. He gasped and jumped back several feet. He opened his mouth to say something when someone punched him in the ribs.

"Oh, sorry Impa," he said, bowing in respect to another being behind him.

A girl steppped foreward. She was dressed similarly to the man who had just threatened me.

"Greetings Zelda, Karane," she said. "My name is Impa. May I see your hand, sorry, it's nessecary to make sure your story isn't a forgery."

I extended my hand, which had the glowing triangles on it. Impa scrutinized it for a minute, before looking me over as well, making me nervous.

"What dreams have you been having lately?" she inquired.

"Go on," Karane urged. "You can trust her."

I described the dream in great detail. Impa listened very attentively, asking an occasional question, and pondering my anwsers.

"Zelda," she said. "Your dreams are often glimpses of the future."

"What?" I said, looking at Karane with alarm in my eyes.

She looked as grave as I did. Impa looked at both of us wearily, and considered us, as though trying to decide what to tell us.

"Karane, Zelda," she said. "You might already know this, but a dark force has been threatening the land of Hyrule for sometime. It's clear that the Goddesses have some plan for both of you in all of this, but what it is I cannot say. Understand, these dreams may not be literal, but symbolic. So, you two may relax."*

"Can you tell us what the dream means?" I asked.

"Well," she said, thinking for a moment. "It's probably best to start with what's going to happen in the near future. Is there anything that's going to happen at a castle you or your family is involved with?

"No," I said, but a look of horror had come over Karane's face.

"Yes, actually there is," she said. "In less than a week, there's going to be a massive celebration at the castle and all nobles are invited, including my parents."

She put her head in her hands in dismay.

"It'll be a prefect time for anyone to strike," Impa said. "Taking out the leadership of Hyrule in one swoop. This must not happen. One more thing, describe for me the night the Triforce appeared on the back of your hand."

I described to her the dream, or whatever had happened that night the Triforce triangle had seeked me out, the voices that had accompanied it, and how it had plunged into my stomach.

"That tells me it had been shattered violently by someone," Impa informed us. "Karane has probably already filled you in on what causes that. The Sacred Realm was invaded on that very same night by assailents unknown. The Triforce shattered and the pieces vanished."

"Really?" I said, stunned.

"So, what do we do?" Karane asked in dispair, clearly afraid that the dream might come true.

"First, try to convince your parents to decline the invitation," Impa said. "But remember, the dreams may not be literal, just symbolic. Now, don't worry, just run along. We'll stay in touch. Together, we'll do our best."

Karane and I pulled our hoods over our heads and turned to leave.

"Zelda, Karane," came Impa's voice from behind us.

"You two will need to be involved," she said. "The Goddesses have interwined your fates to collide with that of the darkness. The Shiekah can help you, so we need to find a way to stay in contact."

"The tree outside Zelda's window," Karane interjected. "It'll be prefect."

"That'll work," Impa said. . "You two may go. We'll expend all our energies to prevent this from happening."

We climbed out of the entrance on a ladder, praying that when we got back, our parents wouldn't know what we'd done.

xxxxxx

The next day dawned bright and clear. I was the first one up at the crack of dawn, the first thing I did (my hair a total wreck as usual) was look out my window. Just outside the grounds of the ranch was a very large tree some distance off. I guessed that it was the tree Karane had been talking about. I bolted from my bed, pulling a blue bathrobe over my white nightgown as I went. I tiptoed down the stairs, making my way into the desereted kitchen and to the front door, slipping my feet into my boots. I carefully undid the bolts on the door, opening it carefully, trying to avoid it from creaking and pontentially giving me away.

My teeth chattered frequently as I walked the few hundred yards out to the tree. I walked around tree several times, examining every inch I could see with my eyes. Eventually, I found a cavity on the north side of the tree. A small glass bottle had been wedged into it. A rolled-up piece of parchment was inside. I picked the bottle out of the tree, pulled the piece of parchment out, and put the bottle back into the cavity. I smoothed it out, and began to read. It read;

_Zelda, Karane_

_Keep this bottle here. We'll leave messages in it nightly for you to retrieve. We have started investigating areas where threats to Hyrule have started in the past. All we can do is sit tight for. _

_Impa_

I folded the note up, tucked inside my bathrobe and headed back inside to show to Karane later. A few hours later, Karane and I were in the library, persusing through books, looking for any sign of anything that might help us when Talon came into the room.

"Hi Dad," me and Karane said in unison.

"Zelda, your presence is requested in the Den," he said.

"What?" I said, looking up from a old volume, confused.

No one had ever asked for me before.

"Zelda, Malon needs you, immediately, now" he said.

At the sound of Malon's name, I pratically dropped the volume and raced through the manor house towards the Den, Karane hot on my heels. We found Malon lying on one of the couches in the Den, dressed in a blue rain cloak with the MW emboidered on the front. Her hair was a complete mess and she was very weak. She had a wet sponge on her forehead and was clearly burning up. Her breathing was labored, just like mine had been when I had my last outburst.

"What's wrong?" I asked, kneeling next to her.

"Zelda," Malon said in a very weak voice. "I've been cursed."

"Cursed?" I asked, stunned. "By whom, or what?"

"I don't know," she said weakly. "Can you heal me? Karane told me in one of her letters about your magic. We've tried everything. Your our last hope."

She no sooner finished her statement when my heart sank. I'd mastered Din's Fire, but since then, my training with Karane had become a total nightmare. Farore's Wind was proving to be difficult. And I'd never used my magic before to heal anyone. I gripped her hand, debating what to tell her when I felt a tingling where my hand had contacted her skin, the kind that appeared just before one of my outbursts. To my surprise, I saw briefly a dark current flowing underneath where I was holding her arm, exposed I guess when I touched her. I guessed that was the dark magic that had entered her body.

Immedaitely after I'd noticed this, the Triforce emblem on the back of my hand began resonating. I zoned out and lost all sense of time and where I was. A single voice rang out in my mind, sounding like the one the blue woman used in my first dream. _Learn to use the Wisdom I bestowed on you my child. Inject your magic into her right arm. _

"Zelda, Zelda," someone said.

My eyes flickered open and found that I was on the other couch in the Den, Karane was standing over me, shaking me.

"I've been waking you up a lot lately," she noted as I opened my eyes.

"I'm sorry," I said. "I can't help it when I pass out or my magic gets out of control."

"Out of control," Malon repeated in a weak and worried voice from behind us, causing Karane to turn around to face her.

"Not anymore," I said quickly, getting up from the couch and walking over to her again. "That was months ago."

"Oh," she said, not fully convinced.

"Well, this is what I'm going to do," I said, deciding to trust the mysterious voice. "I'm going to inject my magic into your arm. I think that'll force whatever you were cursed with out."

"Will it hurt?" she asked weakly.

"Be careful Zelda, I hope you know what you are doing," Karane said, speaking for the first time since Malon had arrived here.

"I don't know," I said. "Most magic is painless though."

Malon gave me her arm and and a trusting gaze. Very gently, I gripped her arm with my hand that had the Triforce emblem on the back.

"Ready?" I asked her.

She nodded, then closed her eyes. I closed mine too, forcing magic from my stomach into my hands. A flash caused me and Malon to open our eyes. We saw white energy flowing out from my hand and into her arm.

"Does it hurt?" I asked.

"A little," she said. "It's getting worse the longer you continue. But I can feel my illness leaving me as we speak."

It was then I noticed that my knees were beginning to wobble from lack of energy. My physical stamina was faltering rapidly as more and more magic drained from my body. Soon both of us were gritting our teeth, pushing through the exhaustion and pain. _How much dark magic did the bozo who cursed her put into this intrepid girl?_

"Aaaahhhhhhhh," Malon yelled in pain, unable to bear it any longer.

But it was over. My knees gave out and I toppled to the ground in front of the couch as a black bolt of magic shot out of Malon's stomach and vanished into thin air. I lay on the ground, both me and Malon taking in deep breathes. Karane grabbed me by the armpits and was helping me to the other couch when Malon's mother burst into the room attracted by her daughter's cry. She was dressed exactly like her daughter.

"What did you do to my little girl?" she asked me, sparks flying from her eyes.

I couldn't anwser, too tired to focus on anythng else. I'd finally reached the other couch and sank down into it, thoroughly exhausted.

"Mother," came from behind Malon's mother (who is also named Malon).  
>She spun around to find Malon sitting up, the sponge next to her on the couch.<p>

"I'm alright, she healed me."

Malon's mother raced to me and gave me a hug on the couch.

"Thank you so much," she whispered into my ear. "How lucky we are you ended up on the Lon Lon's doorstep."

"You know?," I said, shocked.

"Sure we do," she said. "Orielle told us about you not long after you arrived in that miserable blizzard."

"Oh," I said, surprised that my story had spread beyond the Lon Lons.

"So, what actually happened?" I asked the two of them.

Malon's mother let go of me, went back to her daughter and sat down next to her.

"Well," Malon said. "I was on my way home from the Royal Library when something impacted in my right arm. That's all I remember. When I came to, I was in my house, my father had found me and moved me there. A few days later I got sick, developing a fever and I was bedriddgen shortly thereafter. No doctor could tell us what was wrong. Then I remembered that Karane had wrote to me in one of our letters about your magic. I remembered legends about magic users being able to use their magic to heal. That's where I got the idea that maybe you could heal me."

"No one was seen when she was hit," her mother explained. "No arrow, nothing was found in the area where Malon was injured. The Royal Guards found nothing."

Malon's mother rose to her feet.

"Well, I've got to go talk to Orielle and Talon," she said. "Malon, lie back down and put that sponge back on. I don't want to take any chances."

She left the room after ensuring Malon did as she was instructed. Once she was gone, Malon turned to us.

"There's something else that I haven't told or showed my parents," she said. "When I awoke, there was a note stuffed into one of my snow cloak's pockets. This is it."

She pulled out a crumpled piece of parchment from her dress and held it out to Karane. Karane took it, smoothed it out, and came over to me so that we could both read it. In a clear, but quickly scribbled hand where the words;

_Princess, you've been warned. Hyrule will be mine. _

"What does that mean?" I asked no one in particular.

"I don't know," Karane said. "Princess though, it keeps cropping up...

Both me and Malon waited for her to continue her sentence. But she never completed it. After a brief awkward silence, Malon spoke.

"Okay," Malon said a little confused. "It doesn't help us much."

"We must get this to the Shiekah as soon as possible," Karane said. "I'll go later tonight."

She took the note and left the Den, heading for our rooms.

"What? Shiekah? What's going on here?" Malon asked me from across the room.

I got up off my couch, my strength now partially replenished, and went over to her.

"I'll bring you up to speed."

I told her everything that had transpired that she didn't know about. When I had finished, her eye were bulging. Then, out of nowhere, a smirk broke onto her face.

"What about Link?" she said.

"What about him?" I responded.

"Have you taken him out yet?"

"No, and I have no plans to."

"Really, he was so sweet."

I rolled my eyes.

"Well, I don't think it'll ever happen anyways. He disappeared after the Temple of Time excursion and no one has seen him since."

"Oh," she said. "Really?"  
>"Yes," I said, relief in my voice. "I'm tired, I'm going to get a bite to eat.<p>

xxxxxxxx

Back at the Shiekah hideout early the next morning...

Serene entered the Shiekah hideout after another day of spying on the three girls. It was now desereted, execpt for Impa.

"Good evening Serene," Impa said. "What's your report."

"Well, they found the scroll I planted behind Hyrule Castle and decoded it. They beat a Staflos in the Temple of Time, in which the blonde girl also mastered Din's Fire. She progressing rapidly Impa, I'm thoroughly impressed."

"Well, it's now time to tell her," Impa replied. "But we must stay put until the Hero returns from his sojourn in the mountains."

"What's he doing there?" Serene asked.

"Retrieving the Goron medallion," Impa said. "He's already got the Forest and the Zora medallions. The one with the Gorons is the last one we need to retrieve the Master Sword. He should be back within the week. Meanwhile, just continue to observe the blonde girl."

"Yes Impa," Serene said.

The two of them lifted themselves out of the Shiekah hideout and into the plains of Hyrule Field separating as Impa headed towards Castle Town and Serene turned south, heading for the ranch.

**So, some may find this sounds like filler, all I will say is this setting up the rest of the story. **


	8. Chapter 7-The Mirror

I don't own the Legend of Zelda

Note; portions of this chapter may require a knowledge of some of the events that transpired in Twilight Princess. I tried to make it understandable even if you haven't played the game.

Review, if you want the story to improve.

Chapter 7-The Mirror

(Out of Zelda's POV)

Serene and Link paused briefly at the tree-lined lane leading up to the Lon Lon Manor house front door. It was a full moon tonight, not ideal for the kind of work they were here to do, but they didn't have a choice in the matter. Both of them had on black cloaks, and masks over their Shiekah and Hero outfits. As they snuck from tree to tree, pausing behind each one, Serene, used to this sort of work, easily avoided any potential obstacles. Link however, wasn't so lucky. His foot caught in a tree root, causing him to do a faceplant into the ground.

'CRASH!'

"Link," Serene said, shaking her head as she helped him up.

"Serene, everyone does that every one and then," Link defendered. "Besides, I have other concerns."  
>"What might those be?"<p>

"Well, I don't fancy breaking into my former employer's manor house," Link said, wiping pine tree needles and tree branches off his outfit. "Can't we tell her in the day time when she's outside or something like that?"

"Is that really the problem or is it that you don't fancy breaking into the house where the girl of your dreams is staying?," Serene taunted him in a whisper.

The look on Link's face betrayed him.

"Shiek told me everything," Serene said, explaining. "But you've got a problem."

"What's that?" Link responded, surprised.

"Just know that when the turmoil begins, there really won't be time for you two to get together."

Link sighed; it had been true that with his newfound duties, it had been keeping him away from Zelda. _But what did Serene mean?_

"Let's just get on with it," he said, walking towards the manor.

xxxxxxx

(Back to Zelda's POV)

Karane, Malon, and I lay on or against my bed, despirited and bored out of our minds. It had been two days since the first message had arrived from Impa, but her next few hadn't been very encouraging. We'd been reduced to looking through library books to try to decipher my dream and find more information on the darkness threatening Hyrule, or something that had happened in the past, but we'd found nothing. Karane was in shock; the library had never failed her before.

"I can't believe we didn't find anything on it," she said, stunned, scraping some lint off her blue dress. "I do still have a few books in my room I need to check."

"And my eyes are sore," Malon complained, straightening out her red dress that had the signature 'MW' embroidered on the front. "I've read enough books to last an eternity."

After her brush with the curse, Malon's parents left her at the ranch, just in case some form of the curse was still in her. Luckily, I'd hadn't detected any signs of it remaining, so I was able to pronounce her cured earlier today. Karane left the room, closing the door behind her. Me and Malon just laid out on my bed, staring at the ceiling, lost deep in thought.

Thoughts of all kinds raced through my head, none presenting an anwser to the questions that had have been tormenting me. _What did my dreams mean and why did the Triforce choose me? _We had nothing to go on, or where to start looking for that matter. The two of us hadn't been like this for long when the door burst open again.

"Karane?" I said, coming out of my train of thought, stunned she was back so early.

But it wasn't Karane. Two masked intruders entered the room, looking around. One was rather short, lithe, and thin, while the other was taller, and more muscular. Both were wearing black cloaks and masks over their faces.

"Who are you? What do you want?" I said, fright in my voice despite my best efforts to sound brave.

Absentmindly, I was feeling around for my bow and arrows, which I quickly realized I'd left across the room, lying against the my wardrobe, out of reach.

"We want to..." said a voice that I didn't reconize from the smaller of the two.

"NO! You're not doing anything here," Malon declared, finding her sword, which she'd stashed under my bed.

Malon latched onto one of my arms and pointed her rapier at the two masked intruders, who had shut the door behind them. I hid my other free hand behind my back and began to grow a fireball, being careful not to set my lilac green dress on fire.

"I think you misunderstood what we were trying to say," said a very familiar voice.

"Oh, I understood fine," I said.

I wasn't going to wait around to find out what these bandits wanted. I hurled my fireball, which was now the size of a large Cuccou, sending it flaming at the two intruders. One, the thinner and shorter of the two of them, cartwheeled out of the way, but the second one wasn't so lucky.

"Wait Zelda..." Link's voice said.

I wasn't listening; breaking into the house I'm staying in crosses the line. I exploded the fireball in his face.

"Oohaaahh," Link said in a surprised voice, as the mini-explosion propelled him up into the air before he fell back to the ground, out cold.

"Stop," said the other one who managed to dodge it. "We-I mean you no harm."

"Really?" Malon said, her sword in her right hand, disbelief in her voice.

"Please," she pleaded furthur, taking her hood and cloak off and throwing them aside. "Stop."

A woman was standing before me. She had blonde hair, cut short, and the signature red eyes of the Shiekah. The eye symbol was also on her blue outfit, identifying her as a member of the clan. Malon lowered her rapier and I withdrew my magic back into my stomach.

"Well," I said, now relaxing. "You could've at least knocked or something like that."

"My name is Serene," she said.

"Well," Malon said. "It must be important if you're breaking in like a group of burglars in the night."

"We need to tell you something," Serene said. "Something that Zelda needs to know. It'll affect Hyrule's destiny."

"Know what?" I said bluntly.

"Well," she said, getting straight to the point. "Let's start with the scroll you picked up a few days ago."

"Wait, how do you know about the scroll?" Malon cut in.

"I planted it, to guide you to the right course," Serene said, catching Malon off guard. "I trusted you'd show it to your friends and would find a way to decode it."

"No you didn't, I found it..."

"Outside the back of Hyrule Castle, in the garbage?" Serene filled in.

"Yes," Malon said shocked.

Serene turned to me

"It said a branch of the Royal Family escaped., they're whereabouts unknown. Am I correct Zelda?"

"Uhh, yes you are correct," I said, failing to see where this was going.

"Where do you think they might've fled?"

"Anywhere," I responded. "They could've fled the country, I don't know. Why are you asking me?"

"They went to the Faron Woods," she added, pressing on. "Settling in the village of Mordon, where you are from."

"Um," I said, not sure of what to say or make of this. "Many families lived in Mordon. Where are you going with this?"

"Haven't you figure it out yet? They're your ancestors Zelda," she said. "Technically, you should be known as _Princess _Zelda and be sitting on the throne right now."

It took a few minutes for the absurdity of her statement to sink in. I wasn't quite sure how to respond.

"Are you nuts?" I said in a deadly voice. "I'm sorry, but..."

"Not the last time I checked," Serene said with a smile, clearly enjoying our little exchange.

"Zelda's not a princess," Malon interjected. "Or are you? And I never knew you had siblings."

"No," I said. "I was a peasant farmer before I landed here. And yes, I did have four siblings."

"But you're from Mordon in the Faron Woods, right?"

"Yeah. But I don't know of any royality in my bloodline."

"I have proof," Serene said, interupting our little exchange. "Didn't you know that the Triforce mark of Wisdom on the back of your hand was entrusted to the Princess? If you aren't a member of the Royal Family, then why would Wisdom choose you?"

"I don't know," I said.

Serene's smile grew wider; she knew I was losing. A third of me wanted nothing to do with what she was saying, saying that she was a lunatic. But most of me was believing her. I took a look at Malon, she was looking from me to Serene and back again. _I wonder what she's thinking about all this? _Suddenly, the Triforce mark on the back of my hand lit up.

"What the.."

That was all I got out when golden light burst forth, from it, blinding all of us. When the flash had subsided, the dress I'd been wearing was gone. In it's place was a pink dress mad of the finest material. I looked down at it and gasped at what I saw. On the hem of the dress was a sash containing the Triforce emblem and the emblem of the Royal Family of Hyrule. It was held in place by a golden belt that was tied around my waist, while royal white gloves had appeared on my hands and arms, ending well past my elbows. In addition, a necklace of purple rubies had appeared on my neck. I felt additional weight on my forehead that hadn't been there before.

My gaze snapped onto my wardrobe. Looking into the mirror on it, I gasped in shock again. First, there was some sort of make-up on my eyes. I'd never worn make-up until recently; we were simply too poor to afford it. Second, on my head, woven into my hair was a golden tiara or crown. Right above my forehead, in the middle of the tiara, it contained a priceless purple ruby. In addition, worked into the sides of my bangs were four white hair ornaments, that rounded out the crown.* Malon was watching me, wide-eyed while Serene was now grinning from ear to ear.

"Well, _Princess _Zelda," Serene said, emphasizing the word Princess. "Do you believe me now?"

I was having a hard time taking it in. My knees had suddenly become weak and I gripped the wardrobe for support. My right hand brushed my bow, which immediately turned a bright golden color. I shrieked and tripped onto my bed, overcome with a mixture of both surprise and shock.

"That's another sign of the Princess," Serene pointed out. "So, Princess Zelda, what more evidence do you need?"

"So, you _are_ a princess," Malon said, squealing with delight. "I've always wanted to meet one."

I was feeling faint, my mind overwhelmed with all the questions and thoughts swirling about. I needed a break. I got off the bed, which soon proved to be a bad idea. My knees locked and I went down. The room was rapidly fading from my view as darkness pressed upon my vision.

"Zelda!" was the last I heard before all went black.

xxxxxx

My eyes slowly fluttered open sometime later to find myself on my bed, with Talon and Orielle sitting next to me. A massive headache that I hand't noticed set in as I sat up.

"My head," I said gripping it, not feeling the tiara there anymore.

As my vision slowly returned to normal, I saw it lying on the edge of the bed next to me. I was still in my regal attire that I'd acquired earlier. _I'm in so much trouble._

"Easy Zelda," Orielle said, helping me lay back down. "By what I've been told by Malon, you hit your head pretty hard."

"How long have I been out?" I inquired.

"Well, about two hours to be exact," Talon informed me.

"What exactly happened?" Karane asked.

"Later," Malon promised, who had just entered the room, holding some sort of green fruit. "We need to get her well first. Karane, could you get us so stamina fruit."

"Okay," Karane voice said, coming from downstairs.

"Dear, dear," Talon said with a smile. "You can't just stay out of trouble, can you?"

"I do," I said weakly. "Trouble has been finding _me._"

Karane burst into the room a few minutes later, bearing four green fruits in her hands. She sat down next to our mother and handed one of them to me. I took it, and bit into the fruit, feeling a sweet taste enter my mouth.

"And you have some explaining to do as well," Orielle said in a stern voice, eyeing my new outfit.

I didn't have a choice.

"Well, you see..."

It took me about five minutes to explain everything to them. When I was done, Orielle had a shocked look on her face. I braced for her reaction.

"Well," she said. "Something is clearly going to happen."

"I've been picking up rumblings," Talon said. "I do have sources that tell me things. And the latest news has been of monster raging unchecked in the Gerudo Deseret."

"Serene and Link have more explaining to do," I said. "From what I got, it seems like I should be on the throne right now. It's not like I can waltz into Hyrule Castle and tell Matinus, 'Um, hi, I'm Princess Zelda, and can I have my throne back."

Malon and Karane burst into a fit of the giggles that took them awhile to get under control. Orielle and Talon both simply smiled, but didn't laugh.

"Well Zella, I'll tell you this," Orielle said after exchanging a brief look with your husband. "We'll help in anyway we can."

"Thanks Mom, thanks Dad," Karane said. "Don't worry, the Shiekah will protect you."

"One more thing," I said, now that both of them were here. "Please don't go to the celebration."

"Why?" Orielle queried, her eyes narrowed.

"I afraid that we have to go," Talon added/ "Although we don't like the regime, especially the way it regulates the economy, we have to maintain good relations with the government to ensure the survival of the ranch."

I locked eyes with Karane and Malon briefly, then told them about the dream I had. Orielle didn't looked very convinced by the end of it.

"We'll talk it over," she said, deflecting my question. "Hollar if you need anything."

She and Talon left the room, leaving the three of us alone. I broke the silence.

"I just fear how this might end," I said.

"How?" Malon queried.

"Somehow, they plan to turn the throne over to me," I said, the full realization of what they might be planning bursting over me. I put my head in my hands. "Oh, I'm in so much trouble."

"It'll be okay Zelda," Karane said, putting her arm around me. "I'm sure everything will work out. Anyways, you've been out all day, so it's actually bedtime."

"Good," I said, finishing off the last Stamina Fruit. "I feel good enough to change out of this. And by the way, where did Link and Serene go?"

"They left shortly after you passed out," Malon said.

We changed into our white nightgowns, with me taking twice as long as usual due to my new outfit. I hid it in my wardrobe among my dresses. If found, it could earn all of us a death sentence. I extuished the candle in my room, climbed into bed and was out as soon as I hit the pillow.

xxxxxxx

I woke up sometime in the middle of the night, unable to sleep. I moaned and sat up in my bed, fumbling for a lantern Karane had left in there yesterday, but couldn't find it. Finally, I got out of bed, and started walking to the door, intent on getting a drink of water from the kitchen, guided by the moonlight that was flooding in from my window. I'd scarcely opened my door and gone out into the hall when a voice said, "You still awake too?"

I jumped, but managed to contain my scream.

"Yeah," I said.

A lantern flickered into existence, revealing the tired faces of Karane and Malon.

"What's the matter?" I asked.

"We've both been having the same bad dream recently," Malon said. "It's similiar to the same one you had, execpt we're like your attendents or something, watching the same scene unfold by your side."

"Really?" I said, surprised. "Did any of you wake up with cold sweat trickling down your forehead?"

"No," Malon said. "But it was still bad. Also, I know this might be a touchy subject, but something you said has really bothered me."

"What might that be?" I asked, mystified.

"You said something about that you 'used to have' siblings," she said, proceeding carefully. "What did you mean by that?"

"Oh, that," I said. "You have to know the full story..."

_ Mom had left. That's what Dad had told us. My siblings had accepted his explanation without question, but I knew better. I was the oldest, only around ten at the time, but wise behind my years as Mom had always put it. They'd been fighting for weeks until Dad forced her out and took custody of us using Hyrule's laws, which favor men over woman. _

_ I tried to convince my siblings otherwise and even was stupid enough to try Dad, but I'd failed. That's why I was leaving, to find her. I had a good guess where she would go; Mordon, her hometown and where her side of the family was from. Unlike my other siblings, my Mom and I were very close. _

_ I snuck out of my room late one night, tiptoeing past where Dad was snoring layed out on the couch. I had stuffed what few outfits I owned in a small bag I'd stolen from his closet earlier in the day. I'd left no note in my room; better to leave anonmously rather than risk discovery. I slipped out the front door, walking right into someone as I went._

_"Uhhhhhh" I said as I toppled down the front steps with someone else. We landed with a nice 'crash' at the bottom of the stairs, layed out beside each other at the foot foot of the stairs. "Ow...what the, Mom?"_

_ I froze and she did too as we took each other in. She was wearing all black robes, and had her golden blonde hair tied back in a bun. She'd come back to try and get us! I embraced her and her me as we reconized each other, still lying on the ground._

_"I..I..thought, I'd never see you again," I stuttered, starting to cry._

_"Me, too," she said, tears also leaking out of her eyes as well._

_ We stood up, but when we done so, Mom pulled me away from the house and into the cover of the nearby woods. She gazed at me with so much love in her eyes, feeling me as if she couldn't believe it was me. I knew the thought running through her head; __**the daughter who had inherited all of her traits and was the spitting image of her had rallied to her side on her own. **__She hugged me like she'd hadn't seen me in years._

_"Shhhh," she said, cradling me against her body and wiping my tears away. "We don't want to be heard. Stay until I come for you."_

_ I grabbed her hand as she turned to head back to the house._

_"What're you doing?" I said, panic-stricken. "Let's go."_

_"I'm not leaving without your silbings," she said. "That's why I'm back."_

_"Mom, you don't understand," I said. "Dad poisoned their minds against you. He lied to us, said you were leaving. I didn't believe him, I tried to covince them otherwise, but they wouldn't listen. Please, I know, let's just go."_

_ I wasn't meaning to be selfish, if that's what it had sounded like. But they'd turned me down flat and made it clear to me that they wanted nothing to do with her. A single night visit wasn't going to do the trick, I knew that. My mother's response though, shocked me._

_"Yes," she said, in a defeated tone. "I trust you. I seen it in their eyes, but I was gripped by one last hope, that maybe..."_

_"Mom," I said, trying to get some sense into her. "I understand. Please, if Dad finds us, he'll take me back, and I'll never see you again. I'm not meaning to be selfish or anything, please, let's just GO!"_  
><em> I was in tears again now, on my knees in front of her, pulling on the front of her dress.<em>

_"Fine," she said. "I'll come back when he's gone, let's GO!"_

_ She took my hand and lead me off into the woods._

I don't know who was affected more by my tale, Karane or Malon. Both had tears in their eyes by the time I was finished. But it was the bitterness in my voice in my next sentences that shocked them.

"So the fued would continue," I said "Mom tried to convince my siblings of her side of the story when he was out of the house, but they still wouldn't listen. Dad later tried to claim me, but my extended family hid me from him. After that, Mom partially got over her heartbreak by pouring her energies into raising me, now her only child. But she never gave up hope that they'd come back. Sadly, they never did."

"Sorry Zelda," Malon said afer awhile, giving me a hug.

"No, you'd found out sooner or later," I said. "I never saw him again. From then on, I had no silbings or father, too embittered by how they seemingally turned their backs on me and walked out on us. I've forgiven them since then, but I've never seen them since. So, I have no father or siblings."

Silence followed my story for awhile.

"Well," I said. "Are you two planning to try and get back to sleep?"  
>"I don't know," Karane said. "I don't want to have to relive that dream again."<p>

"Well, it's worth trying anyways," I said.

"And sometimes it's not," said another voice that didn't belong to any of us.

The three of us jumped in fright, nearly causing us to drop the lantern. But someone caught it before it could impact the ground. By it's light, we reconized the face of Impa.

"Impa?" I said, shocked. "How'd you know we were up?"

She smiled at me.

"I check in on the three of you every now and then," she said. "You're bound to be targets when the ball starts rolling, so we're doing everything we can to keep you safe."

"We need your help girls," she continued. "Now."

She grabbed all of us by the back of our nightgowns.

"Impa, wait..."

We were pulled into darkness before any of us could issue another word of protest.

xxxxx

We came in the middle of a stand of what looked to be pine trees, who knows how far away. When we landed, the three of us, not being ready, tripped over each other, landing on the forest floor.

"Impa, please, at least give us a warning next time," Karane protested. "And I don't appreciate how you're going about this either."

Impa smiled at us, barely visible in the full moon.

"Sorry. It's not the way of the Shiekah. Let's get a move on, we don't have much time," she said, striding past us, heading towards the west.

"But," I protested."Don't we look a little..revealing out here in our nightgowns?"

"Serene," Impa said. "Could you get them some cloaks."

Serene seemed to come out of nowhere, handing each of us a cloak like the ones Karane and I had used to sneak to the Shiekah hideout. We put them on, following the two Shiekah through the trees, not having any choice in the matter.

"So, where exactly are we going?" I asked.

"You'll see," Impa said.

We walked on in silence for what seemed like hours, occasionally tripping over a branch or rock which we couldn't see by the moonlight. Impa and Serene didn't seem to have brought any lanterns, with Impa using the one that Karane had been holding earlier, which didn't help us of course. Eventually, a hill came into view, a mound that rose above us, it's summit obscured from us by the trees and bushes that dotted it's sides.

"Dark Mound Hill," I said as it came into view.

"You know it?," Impa said, surprised.

"Of course I know it," I said. "I used to play in this area when I was kid."

The five of us started to climb the hill, which made me a little apprehensive. Many scary stories abounded in the Faron Woods about the hill, which was believed to be haunted. As we approached top, we passed under a stone archway that had the Triforce emblem carved into it's stone beams.

"What is this place?" Karane asked Impa.

"Nobody knows," Impa said. "We discovered this by accident and saw some very interesting things that we couldn't make heads or tails of, but we believe will give us clues to what is threatening Hyrule. However, with your skills, you should be able to decipher the clues contained within these ruins."

"Why can't you do it?" Malon prodded.

Impa glared daggers at the black-haired girl, as though wishing she could give us a good anwser, but she didn't respond. By then, we'd reached the summit of the mount. We were standing in the remains of a building, that looked like the remains of a castle tower. What was left of the stone walls formed a circle around a chipped and battered stone pedestal. On it was what looked like to the remnants of a huge mirror. Ancient writing inscribed around the base and remnants of the mirror itself

"No one has been able to read that writing," Impa said. "That's where you girls come in. You decoded the scroll, you should be able to undestand this."

"Not a problem," I said. "I can read ancient Hylian fluently."

"Well, read it," Serene urged, cutting across anyone else who dared to speak.

"Herein lies the remnants of the Mirror of Twilight, removed from Arbiters Grounds by Queen Zelda, and placed here as a reminder that a Hero and a Princess will always arise to combat the darkness that threatens the land known as Hyrule."

Before anyone could say anything else, the entire area lit up quite literally. Lines of light shot out from where I was standing, going outward in every direction, bathing the mound as brightly as morning.

"What the..." Impa and Serene said together, clearly not expecting this. "Zelda, stay where you are!"

That's the last thing I want to hear, but I'm soon transfixed by what happens when the light reaches the mirror remnants. It 'activates', turning white where the mirror should have been, creating a dark portal behind it. A woman stepped out the portal, dressed in a black robe with symbols on it that I'd never seen before. She had red hair that flowed donw to her shoulders, blue skin, and red eyes. She walked towards me, staying within a dark area that was cast directly from the portal.

"Princess Zelda, we meet again," she said.

"I'm sorry," I said, frightened, and fighting the urge to run. "But I've never met you before."

She smiled.

"My name is Midna, I'm refering to your ancestor, the Princess Zelda who placed that mirror remnant there. I'm the ruler of Twilight, like my own ancestor, was before me, who was also named Midna."

My mind raced at a thousand thoughts per second, trying to remember about what I'd been taught about the Hero of Twilight. When what I could recall all that came back to me, it didn't make any sense. _How could the Twilli return to this world _

So," I said, trying to grasp something to ask. "Um, why are you here then?"

She was looking at my outfit, and ignored my questionds. This is becoming too common; ignored questions.

"You aren't dressed like a Princess," she said, changing the topic.

"Well," I said, embrassassed. "I, uuhh..kinda left my outfit back.."

"Well, that's beyond the point Princess," she said, looking me straight in the eyes. "Your presence reactivated the Mirror for just a few minutes so I don't have time. My world has once again been brought into conflict with yours."

"Wh..wha.t? How?" was all I could get out

"The Sages' seal that was cast after the Hero of Twilight defeated Zant that has separated our two worlds has been weakened. A rogue ruler has been raising an army from among my subjects. By the time we found out about it and attacked him, he'd escaped to this world. Now he has..."

Suddenly she vanished before our eyes.

"Midna!" I cried, shocked.

She immediately rematerialized in front of me, locked in a cage held by a dark cloaked figure, the same one from my dream. _I need to rescue her. _Immediately and without any thought, I grew a large fireball between my hands. I locked eyes with Midna one more time before I was about to release it in a bid to free her. I was shocked to find her shaking her head. The message clear.._don't do it._ The portal soon closed, taking Midan and the cloaked man with it. _Why did she stop me?_

The full realization of what she had said came crashing over me. The threat was coming from the Twilight Realm.

"Well, that clears matters up," Impa said. "We must spring into action at once."

"What's next?" I asked Impa, turning to face here.

"We're taking you back to the ranch," Impa said. " Be ready to act if one of us comes calling. It's clear whoever is planning this is planning to strike faster than we anticipated. We're going to need everyone to be ready to stop this from coming to pass.

"Come, let's get going," Serene said. "I'm teleporting you back. Impa's depleted too much of her magic.

She grabbed us by the back of our nightgowns and pulled us into darkness again. We came out back at home in the hallway where we'd been originally.

"See you soon," Serene said, vanishing.

"Well," Karane said. "Let's go back to bed. Who knows what the morrow will bring."

***Princess Zelda's outfit is based on Zelda from Spirit Tracks and Wind Waker**


End file.
